10 Arguments explained
The facts:
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*Denmark produces over 15% of its electricity from wind while Germany produces over 5% of its total The UK has better wind resources - in fact, the best in Europe! |
* The average wind-farm will pay back the energy used in its manufacture within three to five months – more quickly than coal or nuclear plants (British Wind Energy Association).
Argument 2: Wind is intermittent and therefore unreliable
The facts:
* Wind does have a degree of intermittency. But the UK is the windiest country in Europe. When wind-speeds are too low or too high in one location, other wind-farms are still operating in other parts of the country.
* No energy technology can be relied upon 100%. The National Grid can cope with the intermittency of wind without difficulty. It already operates with enough back-up to manage the instantaneous loss of a large coal-fired or nuclear power station. The amount of additional back-up needed if wind-farms were to generate 15% of the UK’s electricity would be small.
Argument 3: Wind is being promoted at the expense of other renewables
The facts:
* Other renewables technologies such as solar, geothermal and tidal & wave must be developed quickly – the UK has the biggest tidal and wave resources in Europe!
* But wind energy is currently the most available and economically viable technology.
* Global Warming will pass the ‘tipping point’ unless radical action is taken now. It would be irresponsible not to use the UK’s abundant wind resources to reduce carbon emissions.
Argument 4: Wind power is expensive
The facts:
* The cost of generating electricity from wind has fallen dramatically over the past few years. Between 1990 and 2002, world wind energy capacity doubled every three years and with every doubling prices fell by 15%
* The average cost of generating electricity from onshore wind is now around 3-4p per kilowatt
hour, competitive with new coal (2.5-4.5p) and cheaper than new nuclear (4-7p)
* As gas prices increase and wind power costs fall, wind becomes even more competitive, so much so that some time after 2010 wind should challenge gas as the lowest cost power source.
* Furthermore, the wind is a free and widely available fuel source, therefore once the wind farm is in place, there are no fuel or waste related costs.
Argument 5: Turbines are taking over the countryside
* There are at present some 1,733 wind turbines in 136 wind-farms, generating 1,963MW (British Wind Energy Association, May 2006).
* Generating 15% of the UK’s electricity by wind would need substantially more turbines. But they would not ‘cover the countryside’ and some would be off-shore.
* The actual ground area physically covered by wind farms is not great, because land between turbines can still be used for farming or open countryside access.
The facts:
* A survey conducted by Mori (November 2005) showed 72% of people supported wind farms, and was the favoured choice of Britons to fill the energy gap in the future.
* A more recent survey commissioned by the DTI (May 2006) found that 81% are in favour of wind power and 62% would be happy to live within 5km (3 miles) of a wind farm.
* Whether you think a wind turbine is attractive or not will always be your personal opinion. Studies regularly show that most people find turbines an interesting feature of the landscape.
Argument 7: Wind farms keep tourists away
The facts:
* A St Andrews University study in Scotland & Ireland (Dec 2005) found that tourists were not put off by the sight of wind-farms. Many even thought wind farms to be a positive addition.
* The UK's first commercial wind farm at Delabole received 350,000 visitors in its first 10 years of operation, while 10,000 visitors a year come to the EcoTech Centre in Swaffham, Norfolk.
* 12,500 visitors visited flagship wind farms around the UK in the 2006 August bank holiday
* A MORI poll in Scotland showed that 80% of tourists would like to visit a wind farm. Wind farms are often asked to provide visitor centres and rights of way to their sites.
Argument 8: Turbines are noisy
The facts:
* With modern turbine designs, mechanical noise from turbines is almost undetectable. It is possible to stand directly under a turbine and hear only the ‘swish’ of the blades.
* Low frequency noise is not a problem to people living nearby. A survey commissioned by the DTI in 1997 found that vibration levels 100 metres from turbines are ten times lower that the safety levels required by modern laboratories.
* The author of the Defra Report on Low Frequency Noise and its Effects (2003) says: "I can state quite categorically that there is no significant infrasound from current designs of wind turbines. There will not be any effects from infrasound from the turbines."
Argument 9: Wind farms harm house prices
The facts:
* There is currently no evidence in the UK showing that wind farms impact house prices. However, there is evidence following a comprehensive study by the Scottish Executive that those living nearest to wind farms are their strongest advocates.
* A Knight Frank (Surveyors) study conmissioned by BWEA in 2004 found “there is no empirical evidence linking the development of wind farms with house prices”.
* A Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors study (2004) found that where house-prices are initially depressed, they recover after wind farms have been up and running for two years.
* A significant minority of surveyors (40%) reported no impact from wind farm developments on residential property values.
Argument 10: Turbine blades threaten bird populations
* The available evidence, say RSPB, is that there is no significant hazard to birds, providing that wind-farms are located away from flight-paths of migrating flocks.
* A report for the Swedish State Energy Authority (2005) found that even the risk to migrating birds is slight.
* The impact on wildlife must be kept in context. A paper in Nature, by a group of scientists including one from RSPB, indicated that global warming if unchecked may make 15% to 37% of our planet’s species extinct by 2020.
(Compiled by Abergavenny & Crickhowell FOE in 2007 from Fact Sheets produced by DTI and BWEA)
