A 250 turbine wind farm which is to be built about 10 miles off the shores of Wales has been approved. The ambitious project will begin sending clean electricity to the grid starting in 2012, and will have a peak power production of 750 MW, which is enough to power around 680,000 homes. Apparently, the plans were held up for a while due to concerns among citizens about the “visual impact” of the farm. Fortunately the Department of Energy and Climate Change fast-tracked the project without getting approval from the locals.
This is a common complaint about wind farms, and a preposterous one. I actually love the way those giant space-age wind turbines look, especially the ones they put in the ocean. It looks like the future.
There have been plans to put wind farms off the coast of Cape Cod, and they’ve met with the same ridiculous red-tape entirely based on aesthetics. Nice priorities, a-holes.
June 15th, 2009 at 12:18 pm
I really don’t understand the griping about aesthetics, either. I could stand for hours looking at them turn. i guess I am wierd, but it is true. ANyways, what would one rather look at? Smog, or a cool wind turbine? Wouldn’t it be cool to live off the planet without destroying it, as we are doing with the coal and fuel emissions, and nuclear waste, and oil spills, and ozone problems.