Newsletter Number Two. Nov 2005

This is our second Newsletter, its purpose is to keep the communities of Aston Ingham, Aston Crews, Gorsley, Kilcot and Linton informed about the gathering opposition and status of the 2 x (183ft) Wind-Turbines at Withymoor Farm; and to provide some general information about wind turbines

The Continuing Story.
Since Newsletter No1 many more people have taken the trouble to telephone, e-mail and send letters to pledge their support for this campaign. As a result our numbers have grown significantly. We have established contact with the other campaign groups including those in Gloucestershire who are facing the same threat from Green Amps.

We are in contact with Mr Brown Green Amps CEO, and pressing him for another public meeting. In the most recent communication he stated that the date of the meeting is expected to be early in November, following the few days it will take to complete the photomontage work at Withymoor Farm. He said he will give 2 weeks notice of a meeting. So we should have heard from him by now. We haven’t. There is nothing posted on his web-site. Lydney residents have experienced the similar undertakings with promises never materializing by the declared dates.

In a recent newspaper article Mr Brown branded as “small minded NIMBY’s” all who raised concerns about his plans for turbines across Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. (Western Daily Press, 5th Oct. 2005.)

Anthony Jay, author of Yes, Minister defines a NIMBY as “any citizen who tries to defend their home and their neighbourhood from plans which would destroy the view, pollute the environment, overload the transport network, upset the ecosystem and knock £50,000 off the value of their house. When it comes to our own back yard we are all NIMBYs and every NIMBY deserves respect for standing up to corporate and government giants.”

The question over the Withymoor Farm turbine site is whether this particular part of Herefordshire’s countryside is worth fighting for. We believe it is.

He won’t get planning permission, so what’s all the fuss about? We have all seen the erosion of planning controls that protected our countryside with the erection of telephone masts; the proliferation of advertising on abandoned trailers along roadsides and poly-tunnels. Now we’ve got Wind turbines which are not only a visual blight but come with their own built in sound system. The latest government policy on the siting of wind turbines instructs local authorities that “Local landscape and local nature conservation designations should not be used in themselves to refuse planning permission for renewable energy developments” (Planning Policy Statement 22 page 12 Para 15.) The Green-Amps takes advantage of this stating in their Vision Statement:

“Planning and finance are simplified to make the easy and rapid deployment of turbines a reality”

Since the introduction of PPS22 Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has reversed a number of planning decisions where Local Authorises initially rejected wind turbines, including some in Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. There is a complete disregard for our countryside by this government, which Green Amps is riding on the back of.

On the other hand Mr Brown of Green Amps stated at the Gorsley meeting he would “go away” if the local community opposed his plans. So if you don’t want turbines at Withymoor Farm you must declare you position now and not wait for the planning controls to protect us. They won’t, because there aren’t any effective controls

The Alternative View:
We know some people in our community support the wind turbines at Withymoor Farm. As we hope is clear from the content of this newsletter, our opposition to this development is not based on blanket opposition to wind turbines – that would be stupid. As stated in Newsletter No 1, we oppose these turbines on this site and we have grave reservations about the subsidies that this government and the EU have introduced to skew the market in favour of developers such as Green Amps. These hidden subsidies are paid by us as taxpayers and consumers. There are also simpler, cheaper and less disruptive ways of cutting CO2 emissions which we discuss below

There is a growing opposition to wind turbines based on ecological and economic grounds as well as on the issues of noise and visual pollution. We do not deny that we are concerned with the effect of the turbines on our own quality of life and the value of our homes; who indeed would not be concerned given that “householders within a 2 -3 mile radius may see a reduction in the value of their homes (Savills Estate Agents)."

Question Time. This month the focus is on CO2 emissions and the claim that Wind-turbines will contribute significantly to CO2 reduction.

How much CO2 would each Green-Amp Turbine save? The wind-power lobby likes to claim that each unit of electricity produced by wind driven turbines would displace a unit produced from conventional, coal-fired power stations. But we need 1.5% more electricity per year just to meet rising demand, so the electricity produced by new wind turbines would not displace units currently produced by conventional means until the output from new turbines exceeded the increase in demand.

It would be necessary to install 7500 Green Amps 300kW turbines each year just to provide for an annual rise of 1.5% in demand for electricity. Certainly, each wind turbine would produce electricity without generating any CO2 emissions, but since we would continue generating emissions from our current fuel mix (2003: coal 34.7%, gas 37.8%, nuclear 21.7%, oil, renewables and other 5.2%, imports 0.6%), we would be unlikely to have a net gain from the introduction of turbines for several years.

Additionally, we would need standby conventional capacity ready for use when the wind doesn’t blow or is too strong and the Turbine has to shut down. Of course, we have to have standby capacity now, but as the proportion of electricity derived from wind turbines increases, we would have to increase the standby resources to cope with the intermittent nature of the wind. This brings with it a consequent increase in CO2 emissions, unless the standby resource was derived from non-CO2 emitting sources such as nuclear. ELTRA, the power-generation company for West Denmark, has stated that for each new 1,000MW of wind power, it needs an extra 300-500MW of non-wind capacity for supply-regulation purposes.

A comparison helps to put the saving in perspective. At best, each Green Amp 300kW turbine would save 355 tonnes of CO2 per year. The Aberthaw coal-fired power station in South Wales produces 8,447,049 tonnes of CO2 per year. At best, we would have to install approx 23,800 of Green Amps 300kWind turbines to save the emissions from Aberthaw.

Are there better ways of reducing CO2 in the atmosphere? The most efficient way to reduce emissions of CO2 is to reduce the need to generate them in the first place. That means, in particular, to reduce our need for electricity from fossil-fuelled power stations. Emissions from power stations currently account for 30% of all CO2 emissions. Note, however, that 70% of the emissions come from domestic, commercial, agricultural, and industrial use, especially from transport.
One way of reducing the CO2 in the atmosphere would be to cut the number of lorries on our roads. A 40-tonne lorry produces about 100t of CO2 per year, so if we were able to take four lorries off the roads, we should reduce the CO2 in the atmosphere by more than the best theoretical saving from a 300kW Green Amps turbine. We can do this by strategies such as reducing “food miles”.
Similarly, a Boeing 747 emits, on average, 20.9t of CO2 per hour. A return flight (2 x c.10 hrs) between London and Los Angeles emits more CO2 than would theoretically be saved by a Green Amps turbine in a year. Reductions in road and air transport would bring real and immediate cuts in CO2 emissions.

What about Solar energy? If every roof in the UK had solar panels, we could exceed the nation’s current domestic energy uses. Though the notion of putting panels on the roof of every house takes us into the realm of fantasy, it would be feasible to legislate for greater energy efficiency, such as solar to be built into all new dwellings. It is in Germany.

The most efficient way to reduce our CO2 emissions would be to increase the fuel-efficiency of our homes and businesses, thereby decreasing our consumption of electricity. The construction and occupation of our homes produces approximately 27% of all CO2 emissions in the UK.

The Government plans to make consumers support the Renewable Energy industry to the tune of £1 billion per year through higher electricity charges. Wouldn’t that be better spent by improving insulation and other energy-saving measures in existing homes?


Wind Turbines vs Energy Saving through better insulation – A Case Study

There are 1,628,000 houses in the UK with pitched roof and no insulation.
3780kWh of energy are lost by each un-insulated house each year.
Insulation to 1990 Building Regulations standards would save 3375 kWh p.a.
The annual output of a 750kW turbine is 1.64M kWh of electricity.
Insulating 485 homes would save that amount of energy each year.
New Funding arrangements give wind energy a subsidy of 2p per kWh of electricity.
The annual subsidy of the turbine will be £32,800.
The cost of insulation is a one-off £122 per house, say £60K for 485 houses.
Over the 100 years life of the house, the energy saving average is £600 pa.
Thus saving pollution by insulation is 55 times more cost-effective than saving it by wind turbines.
Source: Pilkington Insulation, UK Mineral Wool Association

What the Papers Say.
The local press has taken an interest in our fight and we have had good coverage in the Hereford Times and Ledbury Reporter for the last couple of weeks. It is important we keep the wind turbine issue in the public eye, so you may like to write to the Editors and express your views. We also got a mention in the Christopher Booker article “The little people versus the giants” The Sunday Telegraph Oct 9th 2005, which is included with this newsletter.

Harry Bramer our local Herefordshire County Councillor. who represents the Penyard Ward which includes Withymoor Farm supports our campaign to fight the turbines, taking time out to attend the Aston Ingham Parish Council meeting on 10th October where the issue was discussed. He stated ‘to erect such vast structures would I feel be a visual blight on the otherwise beautiful landscape.’

A Big Thank You
A big thank you, to all those who have taken the time out of busy schedules to photocopy and deliver newsletters, make phone calls and organise the media campaign. If you would like to help contact any Group member or telephone the number below.

The Action Group leading the SOS campaign is chaired by Jane Bradney. Other members are Steven Burns, Hilary Orme, Chris Tormey and Lesley Rackley.

If you support or are interested in helping fight this proposal please ring Martin or Jane Bradney 01989 750862