The UK has experienced mixed messages on the subject of wind energy over the last few weeks. By the year 2020, Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants to reduce carbon emissions by a third and in order to meet this tough target, wind energy has to be part of the plan.
Wind energy is, thanks to the government, financially viable in many UK locations, both on and offshore. However slow and negative planning decisions are slowing up the number of projects ready to be built both at the large commercial wind farm scale and for the small domestic wind turbine.
In the UK budget announcement a few weeks ago £45m was ring-fenced to support decentralised small-scale and community low-carbon electricity generation. However planning consent – even for small scale wind turbines are continually being rejected. Planning Inspector David Cullingford dismissed an appeal for a small 10 metre high wind turbine at a farm in Nidderdale, Yorkshire last week, concluding that the wind turbine “would be out of keeping with the landscape“. He believed that “the rotating rotar blades would exacerbate the turbine’s harmful impact by highlighting its position and incongruous appearance“.
In writing off the wind turbine idea, the inspector said that it was “completely out of place in this sensitive and tranquil upland landscape and would set an undesirable precedent for additional development, undermining the primary purpose of the AONB designation“. There have been few good news wind energy stories for the UK over the last few weeks.
