Protest against M4 wind turbines at Rushey Mead

Aurora · Post by **Aurora** » 17 Jul 2010, 19:18

BBC News - 17/07/10

Up to 100 residents have held a protest against plans to build four wind turbines in a field next to the M4 in Berkshire.

Walkers, horse riders, cyclists and runners joined the march along the byway at Rushey Mead, Reading.

It was organised by Harm (Householders Against Rushey Mead).

Reading university, which owns the land and is developing the plans with an energy firm, said they would generate electricity for thousands of homes.

Harm said it has renamed the byway next to the site "Harm's Way".

Article continues ...

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 17 Jul 2010, 19:51

In a grid power shortage, everyone is affected. If you choose a supplier that uses renewable sources, you should not, in fairness, be cut off.

syberberg · Post by **syberberg** » 17 Jul 2010, 21:30

I bet the noise from the turbines gently producing power will be drowned out by the background noise of the M4. Or the dawn chorus.

I wonder how many of them drive along the M4, a far more dangerous thing than walking several hundred yards away from a wind turbine?

Idiots.

2 As and a B · Post by **2 As and a B** » 18 Jul 2010, 06:26

If the developer offered local residents a share in the project on reasonable terms (share of profits or cheaper rate electricity), the ensuing leakage of profit could be easily offset by cost and time savings in the planning application stage.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 18 Jul 2010, 09:07

I've just heard that seven people wrote a letter in support of the planning application for Baumber windfarm.
http://www.enertraguk.com/projects/baum ... -farm.html

891 letters of objection have been received.

Post by **adam2** » 18 Jul 2010, 09:27

emordnilap wrote:In a grid power shortage, everyone is affected. If you choose a supplier that uses renewable sources, you should not, in fairness, be cut off.

Agree entirely, though unfortunatly it cant be done with present or proposed technology.
There is no way to cut off selected customers and leave others on. Rota power cuts would be imposed one grid district at a time, without regard for special needs, the vulnerable, those dependant on electricity or the importance of hospitals, or other local facilities.
There is therefore also no facility to treat differently customers of different suppliers.

Some vital industries might be excepted from rota cuts, but this can only be done if the customer has it own DEDICATED HIGH VOLTAGE grid connection, which is only feasible for very large power consumers.

In the case of customers supplied at low voltage (240/415) no exceptions can be made, no matter what.

goslow · Post by **goslow** » 19 Jul 2010, 10:40

can't believe it, the M4 is between the houses and the turbines....

isn't there an ecotricity wind turbine next to the M4 somewhere?

Pip · Post by **Pip** » 19 Jul 2010, 23:34

goslow wrote:can't believe it, the M4 is between the houses and the turbines....

isn't there an ecotricity wind turbine next to the M4 somewhere?

There's a large wind turbine next to the M4 in south Reading, as part of the Green Park industrial estate in Whitley.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 19 Jul 2010, 23:40

People are really, really strange about wind turbines. Especially when compared to roads. As the Psychiatrist in Fawlty Towers said, "There's enough material there for an entire conference..."

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 20 Jul 2010, 00:45

RenewableCandy wrote:People are really, really strange about wind turbines. Especially when compared to roads. As the Psychiatrist in Fawlty Towers said, "There's enough material there for an entire conference..."

I'd be happy to have some here, but I live in a valley that doesn't get much wind

.

syberberg · Post by **syberberg** » 20 Jul 2010, 03:02

Just then they came in sight of three or four wind turbines that rise from that plain. And no sooner did Don Quixote see them that he said to his squire, "Fortune is guiding our affairs better than we ourselves could have wished. Do you see over yonder, friend Sancho, three or four hulking giants? I intend to do battle with them and slay them. With their spoils we shall begin to be rich for this is a righteous war and the removal of so foul a brood from off the face of the earth is a service God will bless."

"What giants?" asked Sancho Panza.

"Those you see over there," replied his master, "with their long arms. Some of them have arms well nigh two leagues in length."

"Take care, sir," cried Sancho. "Those over there are not giants but wind turbines. Those things that seem to be their arms are blades which, when they are whirled around by the wind, generate electricity."

With apologies to Miguel de Cervantes.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 20 Jul 2010, 08:33

We've got a little problem with our MEP Roger Helmer who is making much more noise than a wind turbine in relation to a couple of proposed windfarms in Lincolnshire.

Could folk please point out all the errors in this little rant of his.

Roger Helmer MEP wrote:Some people tell us that we should be using wind power, because the wind is free. Well the wind may be free, but wind power is very expensive indeed. Currently the annual subsidy per turbine is nearly £150,000, and that's paid by you, the consumer, and by British industry.

To add insult to injury, wind farm operators are even being paid extra to turn off their turbines when their power is excess to requirements -- for example at night. Scottish Power were recently paid £180 per megawatt hour for switching off, which amounted to £13,000 for turning off two wind farms for just over an hour.

More generally, UK subsidies to wind farms topped a billion pounds last year. It is estimated that total renewable energy subsidies will reach £10 billion by 2020, as the UK struggles to meet the EU's hopelessly optimistic renewables targets. In addition, the National Grid will need investment of around £10 billion to cope with this new world of intermittent and distributed power sources.

The cost of wind is further increased by the need to keep conventional back-up constantly fired-up and available, for when the wind drops.

Taken together, it is likely that the costs of our renewables objectives will drive a million more British families into fuel poverty by 2020.

Wind power is intermittent, unpredictable and very, very expensive. Shaun Spiers of the Campaign to Protect Rural England has said that we will come to see wind turbines as the "redundant relics of our compulsion to do something". The Renewable Energy Foundation says that wind turbines are garden ornaments, not power stations. Wind power is simply about gesture politics -- about salving the consciences of the chattering classes.

Meantime the turbines are continuing their march across of some of the UK's finest rural landscapes. They are blighting villages, and homes, and lives.

You can actually watch him speaking those words in this video, if you must:
http://rogerhelmer.com/windfarms_video.asp

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 20 Jul 2010, 12:05

RenewableCandy wrote:People are really, really strange about wind turbines. Especially when compared to roads.

Or pylons. Or power stations.

goslow · Post by **goslow** » 20 Jul 2010, 12:21

might be shooting themselves in the foot with that acronym, HARM not exactly warming the heart is it? Surely something more positive like

NORM - Neighbours Object to Rushey Mead
SWARM - Stop Wind turbines At Rushey Mead
SPERM - Stop Production of Electricity at Rushey Mead

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 20 Jul 2010, 12:38

"Cut Unwanted New Turbine Schemes"