Daily Mail article.

It would be hard to beat the sad gullibility with which the media last week reported the plans of Lord Mandelson and our Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband to cover our countryside and sea with 10,000 more huge wind turbines.

Read the full article here.

Having marginal renewable energy justifications a campaign is being fought that uses social rejection to make us accept industrial scale wind energy across the UK.

Read the full article and the support article.

Daventry District Council announced on Wednesday the 11^th March that Bolsterstone had withdrawn its planning application for an industrial scale wind farm between Hanging Houghton and Brixworth.

Unfortunately it is likely that Bolsterstone may have withdrawn its application in order to re-submit a smaller application, which no doubt will waste more public and local money. It is not getting any easier for Bolsterstone as Torridge District Council recently said when they rejected a wind farm application “This decision sends out a clear signal to other would-be speculators like Bolsterstone, the property and investments management company behind this proposal. It was clear right from the start that this site had too many constraints.”

The SBWF team would like to thank all its supporters and CPRE for all the help given in fighting this planning application. Whilst we are in limbo, remember that there are another two other wind farm threats in the immediate area, at Harrington and Gt. Cransley / Mawsley and we hope that everybody will give these two communities all the help they can.

During the ten months that our campaign has been running, there has been increasing national support for our cause. When we started it seemed a more defensive fight against a strong wind industry, with turbines promoted and justified on green myths and distorted facts. These were supported and actively encouraged by the government, giving large subsidies, wishing to appear green and seeking re election.

Whilst the government still has its head in the sand and there is a long fight ahead, the perspective is changing and increasingly people are challenging the wind farm justifications as more facts emerge. It is especially relevant that The Danes who were the world initiators and are leaders in wind farms are now saying:

“Windmills are a mistake and economically make no sense.”
– Neils Gram, Danish Federation of Industries

“Wind turbines do not reduce carbon dioxide emissions.”
–Fleming Nissen, Head of Denmark’s largest energy utility

“For our industry, it has been a terribly expensive disaster.”
–Aase Madsen, MP, Danish Parliament and Chair of Energy Policy

The Danish Government have stopped building inland wind farms and are now only building offshore wind farms. They have built up a huge wind turbine manufacturing industry and they need to support it somehow. Germany’s CO2 emissions haven’t been reduced by even a single gram despite all their wind turbines. In fact, Germany has had to build many more coal and gas-fired plants.

Recent English wind farm applications no longer make any claims about carbon savings, now that one big lie has been exposed. We must keep reminding politicians of these facts so that they remove the bias from the planning system and end the massive financial incentives. Whilst these are driving the attack on rural communities and the pointless desecration our countryside, investment in other alternative energy needed to replace rapidly reducing supplies of fossil fuels is being neglected.

• “Windmills are a mistake and economically make no sense.”
  – Neils Gram, Danish Federation of Industries
• “Wind turbines do not reduce carbon dioxide emissions.”
  – Fleming Nissen, Head of Denmark’s largest energy utility
• “For our industry, it has been a terribly expensive disaster.”
  – Aase Madsen, MP, Danish Parliament and Chair of Energy Policy

Read the full article at

http://www.wind-watch.org/alerts/2009/02/26/is-wind-power-really-green-preserve-grey-highlands-ad/

The wind farm industry has been forced to admit that the environmental benefit of wind power in reducing carbon emissions is only half as big as it had previously claimed.

The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) has agreed to scale down its calculation for the amount of harmful carbon dioxide emission that can be eliminated by using wind turbines to generate electricity instead of burning fossil fuels such as coal or gas.

Read the full story at the Telegraph’s website.

Residents in Whittlesea were left fearing for their safety after shards of falling ice fell on homes and gardens from the blades of a giant wind turbine. For about four hours people in King’s Dyke, Whittlesea had to take cover as huge lumps – some two feet long – showered them from the 80 metre tower on Saturday morning.

This ice throw problem is very relevant to Brixworth, imagine the damage it could have done if it happened with one of the turbines proposed for Brixworth, one placed close to the A508, another in the Mercedes car park and one adjacent to the Brampton Valley Way.

With a good wind the turbine blades are spinning at over 150 mph at the tips, how far would these missiles have been thrown at this speed? This is a problem that has been recorded for years, hopefully the Health & Safety Executive will now stop allowing these giants to be placed so close to public places.

Read the full story: Peterborough Evening Telegraph

View the BBC video which also makes comments on noise problems

Wind farm protest posters in landscape and portrait can now be downloaded from this site.

They are in the new more distictive colours of black on yellow, which we will be using in future.

The link for these is  under ‘Resources’

May we also draw your attention to another excellent paper by Professor Michael Jefferson on the ‘Efficiency of English wind farms’ which is also in the ‘Resources’  links.

Fears over the health of his pregnant partner and unborn child is forcing a man to demand a wind turbine standing a stone’s throw from his family’s home is removed.

Andrew Randall says that the constant noise from the turning blades is causing sleepless nights and stress for Rachel, who is four months pregnant.

Mr Randall (23) said: “Rachel’s stressed all the time and she can’t cope with the lack of sleep. I’m concerned about the health of the baby.

Mr Randall’s neighbours have joined the fight and each household has logged a complaint with the Environmental Health department at Fenland District Council.

Read the full story: Peterborough Evening Telegraph.

About a fifth of the electricity produced annually in Denmark is generated by wind. Of this, just over a half can be used directly within national borders over the year. The rest must be exported (often at much reduced prices) to preserve the integrity of domestic grids.

The need to backup the variable supply of wind power with electricity from combined heat and power plants for internal use, and the necessity to export large surpluses of wind power, mean that domestic savings in carbon emissions are relatively small at the present time.

Investigations to develop novel power transmission and usage systems for the greater exploitation of wind power within Denmark are in hand, but public opposition and concerns about safety have temporarily halted the deployment of wind turbines on land.

Read Dr Mason’s article at Windpower in Denmark
(Copyright Country Guardian)