Environment
and Sustainability Committee
Inquiry into Energy
Policy and Planning in Wales
EPP 29 – Paul Sear
Re: The 2 petitions to Welsh Assembly
When TAN 8 was first put forward wind farms were few and far between and the height of the turbines made them fairly unobtrusive. New turbines would be up to 600 ft high and movement of them on our roads would be chaotic as well as being able to see them for miles once erected. Also over time more and more information, which is scientifically based, has come about which clearly indicates that large-scale land based wind farms are not the way forward.
Two reasons are usually given for such wind farms, one being that the UK needs energy security and secondly that we need to reduce carbon emissions.
On the first point wind generated electricity is unreliable because of the very nature of the wind, i.e. it does not always blow so that any claim to energy security is a fallacy, especially as back up power is always required from, usually, imported gas.
On the second point there obviously will be some reduction in Carbon emissions but on a global scale it will be virtually negligible.
Some wind farm development is ok but once you reach a point in a particular area where it becomes necessary to have large-scale infrastructure projects considered i.e. pylon connection to the National grid then a halt should be put on any further development.
Such wholesale development of wind farms and associated pylons would cause devastation to the beautiful countryside of Mid Wales and those other areas, which were included in TAN 8.
Having driven back from Lake Vyrnwy to Newtown on Sunday 11th you get some sweeping views over what is one of the SSA’s and it beggars belief that all of that could be turned into what will be effectively an industrial landscape. The roads could not cope with the traffic; tourism would be affected as only a few simpletons could possibly view a 360-degree panorama of turbines to be anything but ugly. Basically the whole area will be blighted just as many other areas of the UK are when industrialisation on such a large scale takes place. Why has there been no environmental study done? Effect on tourism, house prices. People will no longer come here, why should they.
The energy companies have one remit and that is to maximise profits for their shareholders, there is no altruism involved. And why are Shell, BP, Exxon etc so excited about the large oil deposits found off South America and the west coast of Africa. They are hardly likely to keep it in the ground.
The belief that wind generated electricity can help to solve our problems is a myth perpetuated by the energy companies.
Those responsible for TAN 8 have every right to listen to the energy companies but they need to have a balance view and also look at the facts against. They need to have an impartial but informed view. That is why it is so necessary to review TAN 8 before any further development is allowed to take place. The Welsh Assembly owes it to the people of Wales to do that.