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Siobhan Wagner
Chief reporter
Eye of the beholder
In the Scottish Highlands this week councillors rejected plans for installing 48 wind turbines at sites near Tomatin for fear the towering machines would ‘trash’ the area’s ‘ephemeral atmosphere’.
Highland Council’s Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey planning committee objected the plans because, as the Strathspey & Badenoch Herald reported, it would have ‘a significant detrimental impact upon visual amenity and the enjoyment of… the area’.
As the paper put it, this includes ‘the historic ruined castle in the middle of Lochindorb…the stronghold from which the notorious Wolf of Badenoch, Alexander Stewart, extended his cruel grip over Strathspey in the 14th Century’.
The fierce opposition to wind farm developments is nothing unique to Scotland and it’s certainly nothing new. Those arguing for and against have both in their own way tried to claim the environmental mantle.
The pro-stance is easy to understand: wind energy is clean and renewable and rolling it out on a greater scale will help us move away from dirty fossil fuel sources.
Those opposed have a less clear pro-environment argument, but their case usually includes the turbines’ potential affect on local fauna or bird populations (or sea mammals in the case of offshore installations). As shown by the recent Scottish case, there’s also a conservationist point of view that unfettered deployment of wind farm installations could blot the increasingly scarce areas of natural beauty.
On that score, however, you have to take into account that well over 90 per cent of the UK landscape is man-made; the Highlands would be almost entirely covered in conifer forest if it weren’t for clearing for subsistence agriculture and, most notoriously, for sheep farming in the 18th and 19th centuries.
While not so much a ‘green argument’, there are also the reported cases of so-called ‘wind turbine syndrome’. Despite numerous health studies refuting the connection, some residents living nearby wind farms have claimed that low frequency noise or shadow flicker from blades can cause an almost sea sickness.
It’d be tough to find anyone against wind energy in principle, but the case in Tomatin is another example of residents not wanting it in their back yard.
While opponents in the Highland argue the turbines would scare tourists away from their historic sites, their fears may be allayed by a survey taken of visitors to Argyll and Bute in West Scotland in 2002 when three large commercial wind farms were in operation in the area.
The survey conducted by Ipsos MORI found that 43 per cent of participants thought the ‘presence of a wind farm had positive effect’ and only 8 per cent said had a negative effect. When asked about the impact on the likelihood of visiting area in future, 91 per cent said ‘it made no difference’.
Just this week on a trip to Paris, I remarked while looking at the Eiffel Tower how funny it was that when it was put up in the late 1800s Parisians revolted and called for the eyesore to be torn down. Hundreds of years later I am asked by a family of tourists to take their picture in front of it.
As I rode home on the Eurostar the next morning I spotted three wind turbines spinning in the distance. Their blades looked like children cartwheeling across the French countryside. I couldn’t help but smile and wonder how these elegantly engineered machines could be considered a blight on the view.
How would you feel about a wind farm being constructed near you? We welcome your comments.
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Readers' comments (34)
Anonymous | 27 Aug 2010 11:55 am
Dear Miss Wagner,
One could almost hear a Vaughan Williams composition playing when reading about the childlike cartwheeling wind turbines.
May I introduce your readers to an equally beautiful site, namely the sun setting on Sizewell A power station. Looking east around one mile away inland from the site presents a vision of beautiful red, purple and orange iridescence. Factor in the ruins of Leiston Abbey to the north and the marriage of the ancient and new is surely consummated most perfectly.
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Wendy Bourne | 27 Aug 2010 1:04 pm
I always enjoy the sight of a wind farm. It shows me that the local residents realise there is an energy crisis in the making, and have realised that the machines are NOT ugly, that they have an untapped energy resource in their area, and are doing their bit to keep their area green. Or would these objecting councils like all their National Grid power lines taken down as well?
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A Wilks | 27 Aug 2010 1:17 pm
I assume the last commenter was sat in the north sea watching the sun set over Sizewell, but I take their point, I was growing up in Suffolk when it was built and found it offensive to the eye at first but now its just part of the landscape. That said its site produced more power per square metre of land than any wind farm could ever dream of and the green angle doesn`t wash with me if we cover great swathes of our rapidly diminishing countryside with turbines. So I say well done Highlander`s its good to see someone has the guts to stand up for their countryside.
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brian M | 27 Aug 2010 1:21 pm
Like everyone else believe wind farms are great - provided they are in someone else's backyard!
The occasional wind generator looks good but when they become farms - they become an eye sore.
The advantage of nuclear from an 'environmental' perspective is that it its more concentrated in its footprint. Plus as no one wants to live close to one, it gives a natural untouched surrounding habitat (bit like the army and Salisbury plain!),. Who cares if the local bunnies have a bit of an extra glow about them!
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Pat O'Leary | 27 Aug 2010 1:31 pm
Those dastardly Nuclear Scientists - making the Sun set in the East now are they?
"....the sun setting on Sizewell A power station. Looking east around one mile away inland from the site presents a vision of beautiful red, purple and orange iridescence"
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Editor's comments | 27 Aug 2010 1:31 pm
Good point, Pat. We're assuming our reader was inland and looking in an easterly direction toward the north sea coast where the power station is situated and that the sun was setting behind him in the west. That's our guess, anyway.
David Claxton | 27 Aug 2010 1:33 pm
I am a supporter of wind farm development. Many a time, visiting Cornwall, I find the sights of the wind farms quite awesome. I am of course aware of the relatively low output but am equally aware that wind farms are more efficient than photovoltaic systems. That's latitude and weather for you. I can see no reason not to develop wind harnessing technology, the same with water and anything that is apparently free to use. The alternative of course is nuclear - still after all these years saddled with a the fear of the side-effects of nuclear fuel - yet little evidence of problems. I haven't heard many complaints from the French and I believe they generate some 80% of their electricity requirements from nuclear. OK, so a lot of their nuclear plants are along their north coast so guess where the fall-out will go! Fossil fuels are dirty and increasingly more expensive to extract and transport - so why not use local resources?
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Neil | 27 Aug 2010 1:39 pm
Having spent a week in Scotland on holiday this year and past numerous wind farms the only significant impact visible was the vastly improved roads and infrastructure around them. NIMBYism however is often the effect of too many incomers with rose tinted glasses wishing to retain a 'romantic' ideal, which true locals often don't agree with as it reduces opportuniites for work etc...
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Peter I | 27 Aug 2010 1:39 pm
Having lived next door to a 100MW nuclear station for some years I would sooner have that than 60 odd wind turbines it would take to replace it. They do tend to keep quiet about the poor overall generating efficiency of wind turbines viz. 30-ish per cent!
One wonders, even of those turbines you see spinning on the news, what power are they actually generating? Or are they, as I suspect, generating very little or freewheeling!
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Anonymous | 27 Aug 2010 1:44 pm
Unfortunately the Scottish Government doesn't want anything to do with nuclear power. It doesn't appear to like wind power much either - this decision coupled with the one in the Outer Hebrides a couple of years back shows proves that. Natural gas is on the decline. Not sure where that leaves the future energy security of Scotland. Perhaps a large hot air recovery system installed at Holyrood, which, given the volume of resource available, at least does not need to be very efficient
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Andrew | 27 Aug 2010 1:51 pm
I completely agree with the Highlanders. We should eschew all forms of power generation that lessen the environmental impact on the world as a whole, and rather concentrate on how a view that was previously spoilt by the building of a castle will now be further spoiled by the building of an impressive and beautiful machine. We should definitely take NIMBYness as a core principle - the technology is great, but please build it where I can't see it - screw others. I'd rather live the the inefficient, outdated polluting technology than deal with innovation and progress.
Perhaps the Highlanders are right - let's fear change and stay self centred. After all, there can be only one...
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Editor's comments | 27 Aug 2010 1:51 pm
This letter wins our Geek Award for this week.