Re-using redundant airfields
Bicton industrial estate is on the site of a WWII airfield. During the war this land was requisitioned to create a location for USAF B52 bombers to launch raids on Germany. Luckily none of the current residents were in a position to object otherwise we wouldn't be here now.
It saddens me that so many are in the Nimby camp on the matter of windfarms. The level of ignorance on incontrovertable matters of physics and fact is quite frightening i.e. CO2 is a greenhouse gas; levels of CO2 emissions are at unprecedented highs; The rate of increase in atmospheric CO2 is greater than previously. Also the lack of willingness to allow measures such as a local windfarm that will have significant contribution to addressing climate change with little effort on the part of local residents. In fact as they will gain a community benefit from such a windfarm, their position comes with a degree of sacrifice.
I am somewhat intigued as to where people think that the energy will come from to power their electronic vehicles, either they will be bidding for some of the present level of output or we will need to generate more. I wonder where that will come from? Personally it has always appealed to me that you can erect structures such as wind turbines and Photo Voltaic panels and then get free energy. Especially now that you will be able to earn 41p a unit for all you can generate. Next stop install a PV system.
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I want to see the windfarm expanded to the original eight windmills. My former next door neighbour and her boyfriend, the main co-ordinators of the 'anti' windfarm lobby are the biggest hypocrites under the sun! The deterioration of the village was the main driving force behind me selling up recently. Mrs Ralph gets her boyfriend to drive her to and from work twice a week in a 3 litre Mercedes, a distance of 200m. He drives to the cashpoint weekly and neither of them are disabled, just lazy! Further, he takes the Mercedes "out for a spin" at least twice a day. They have the lights on in every room constantly, even on sunny days, yet complain about the price of energy. These two are just an example of the people in the village; hypocrites and nimbies! Please help save the planet from people like these.
I wouldn't describe these people as hypocrites, from your description they seem rather ignorant and antisocial. Perhaps an arguement that might strike a chord with them is that most energy is derived from inputs (resources, or perhaps for their benefit coal, gas and oil) that come from foreign countries. So all they are doing by their extravagant energy use is feathering the nest of some Arab Sheik.
I hope your new home is in a Wimby rather than Nimby neighbourhood!
Well an actual planning application has now been submitted for four turbines at Bicton Industrial estate. Richard Murphy chair of "Stop Bicton Windfarm" group is touring the neighbourhood whipping up objections. Apparently the background noise at his house is currently 19dB and the noise at his house will be 49dB - I actually think that the 49dB is the noise under the turbine which is nearly a kilometre from his house but hey ho to accuracy.
A big element of his concerns are over the loss of house value. Is there any evidence of this anywhere at all?
Another big issue for him is that the windfarm will not benefit local houses i.e. with free energy. Despite a £24k annual community fund Richard is obsessed by the Government subsidy payment to the operator of the turbines Broadview Energy.
I believe wind energy has an important role to play in fighting climate change but they have to put them in the right place.
If you check the planning application here..
http://applications.huntsdc.gov.uk/dc%20files/2010_PDF/Fileroom/1001201FUL/DOCUMENT_4.pdf
You can see that the developer themselves say 6 turbines (layout 09) would "marginally fail" to meet government guidelines on allowable noise from turbines (ETSU-R-97). I suspect this is why it was reduced to four turbines. This despite ETSU-R-97 being quite generous to wind farm developers - it allows them to make more noise in your bedroom than the World Health Organisation say is required to get back to sleep.
Must be possible to find better sites than this. It's not as if the proposed site is particularly windy. The minimium recommended within the industry is an average of 6.5m/s and the developer recorded 6.7m/s.