Wind Energy & the Environment
Wind energy works, is increasingly cost-effective, has a net positive environmental impact, and is compatible with most existing land uses. The links below touch on the topic of wind’s environmental benefits and impacts.
Instead of tilting at turbines we should see them for what they are: beautiful
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External Source
But I would ask country dwellers still inclined to block them to see that they are in fact beautiful. They are prettier than power stations, less destructive than fracking, certainly lovelier than floods, fires, droughts and other effects of climate change. They enrich the nation with the help of its abundant wind, and make us less dependent on fossil-fuel despots. Wind turbines are in a long rural tradition of robust practical structures that also includes barns, mills, viaducts, canals and others that have become beloved and protected. On those same drives I was always happy to see an old windmill. It shouldn’t be too hard to love their modern equivalents.
Rishi Sunak ‘poised to revoke ban on onshore windfarms’
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External Source
Ministers are preparing to introduce changes to planning rules that will allow councils to give the go-ahead to turbine proposals where there is broad public support, according to the Telegraph. The amendment to scrap the ban on new offshore wind was put forward by the former Cop26 president Alok Sharma and has since drawn support from a group of Tories including Liz Truss, who are “confident” that it will pass.
Great Lakes gets its first wind farm – but some fear environmental fallout
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External Source
The Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation (Leedco) is planning to build Icebreaker, a demonstration wind farm generating 20 megawatts of electricity several miles off the shore of Cleveland. The project would initially be small, starting with six turbines, with construction expected to begin as soon as 2025 and electricity coming online two years later.
Wind projects’ ‘take permit’ will fund condor breeding, wildlife releases
By
John Cox
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued the second and largest of these permits last month, giving eight companies legal protection in the event of accidental death of up to 11 free-flying condors and 11 chicks or eggs over a 30-year period.
Criminal cases for killing eagles decline as wind turbine dangers grow
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External Source
Criminal cases brought by U.S. wildlife officials for killing or injuring protected eagles dropped sharply in recent years, even as officials ramped up issuing permits that will allow wind energy companies to kill thousands of eagles without legal consequence.
Jérôme Guillet on Substack
By
Jérôme Guillet
Insightful analysis by an authority on wind energy and energy policy with extensive experience in the offshore wind sector.
