Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Massive Wind Farm Plan Blown Away

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Plans to construct one of Europe’s largest onshore wind farms has been refused by the Scottish Government.

It said Lewis Wind Power’s (LWP) 181-turbines for Lewis on the Western Isles did not comply with European law protecting sensitive environments.

The scheme had the backing of the local authority and business, but attracted almost 11,000 objections.

BBC News website: Massive wind energy plan refused

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Comments

  1. Eyrie says

    Well, it’s a start. Let’s hope it is the beginning of a trend so all the rent seeking windmill scammers have to get real jobs.

  2. Ian Mott says

    The most appropriate place for a wind farm is floating 50km offshore where no-one can see them and they cannot interfere with existing activities. Combine their floatation structure with wave energy generators, a fish cage underneath, and a brothel on top and they might, just might, reach the kind of economies of scale that would justify their existence.

  3. Hasbeen says

    Sorry Motty, you’ve got this one wrong.
    By the time the punters have done the 50km boat ride, & them climbed onto the pontoon thing, they’ll be too busy hanging over the rail, feeding the fish, to take advantage of the “tender facilities”

    The only potentially profitable part of the opperation just won’t work.

  4. Ian Mott says

    I would have thought that puting up with ‘barf breath’ came with the territory in that profession. You may be right but I hadn’t factored in the free fish food in the economics of the pen. As Sir James (Jimmy) Buffet once said, some of its magic, some of its trajic.

  6. Louis Hissink says

    Obviously Greenies do not live in Stirling Castle, otherwise this monstrosity would never happened.

    NIMBYS anyone?

  7. Daniel Gallagher says

    So you think a pulp mill in the Tamar will be prettier? Silly question.

    Ian Mott mentions a brothel – how unusual.

  8. bikerider says

    We’re about to get a wind farm along the eastern shore of Lake George, north of Canberra. Unlike the dreadful changes to the landscape around Stirling Castle mentioned by Paul I think these turbines will actually improve the view across the lake. The term ‘shore’ is a bit of a misnomer as the lake is empty most of the time.

    Whether they’ll produce much electricity remains to be seen – one reason I like Canberra is that it isn’t often very windy here.

  9. Ender says

    Paul – “The shocking picture that shows how wind farms disfigured one of Britain’s loveliest landscapes”

    That is of course if you completely ignore the that the bare hills in the background were probably once covered by a magnificent forest!

    I guess if you ignore that disfigurement then you could regard the wind turbines as an eyesore. However it is a matter of taste. To me bare hills that were once forested are not disfigured by wind turbines.

    BTW ever seen what a coal mine does to the landscape? Particularly the hideous practice of blowing off the tops of mountains. Lucky there is no coal underneath them.

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0312environment-coal,1,4005988.photogallery

    Now that is a lovely site – much better than wind turbines.