Posted on 11/30/2005 10:08:36 AM PST by SirLinksalot
Giant wind farm will be a 'catastrophe', warns charity
FRANK URQUHART
CONTROVERSIAL plans to build the world's largest wind farm on Lewis will have an "unprecedented impact" on endangered birds and wildlife and the island habitat that supports them, a major charity said yesterday.
In a damning report, published to coincide with a meeting in Edinburgh today between the developers and MSPs, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Scotland claims that the £411 million development, involving the erection of 234 wind turbines across 43km, will have a "catastrophic" effect on more than 6,000 hectares of protected peatland other vital habitats.
RSPB Scotland has warned that, should the development get the go-ahead, it will set a "very dangerous precedent" for all internationally important sites in Scotland threatened by similar developments.
The charity has also produced a series of maps to illustrate the scale of the development, superimposing the gigantic wind farm on key population centres.
The maps show that the development would stretch north from Edinburgh to beyond Methil and west to Dunfermline; from Glasgow's Central Station to East Kilbride in the south and north to Falkirk; and from Epsom Downs, south of London, to several miles north of the Thames flood barrier and east to Hampton Court.
This year Western Isles Council decided by 19 votes to eight to support the proposed development by Lewis Wind Power, a consortium led by British Energy and Amec.
The Executive, which will have the final say, has received more than 4,200 representations on the proposal, with just nine in favour. Representatives of British Energy and Amec are due to meet MSPs in the Scottish Parliament today to brief them.
But the RSPB is calling on the Executive to reject the scheme because of its "disastrous" implications for rare birds and wildlife.
James Reynolds, a spokesman for RSPB Scotland, said: "British Energy and Amec's application to build the 702-megawatt wind farm will have a staggeringly damaging impact on an internationally important and sensitive location, protected by multiple nature conservation designations.
"For certain species, including golden plover and dunlin, the peatland habitat where the project will be sited is the best in Europe, and hosts a significant proportion of their total British or world populations.
The RSPB believes that, although the environmental survey work undertaken is extensive, it is fundamentally flawed."
David Hodkinson, a director of Lewis Wind Power, refuted the RSPB claims. He said: "Our environmental work and proposed design have moved forward considerably since our planning application was submitted in the autumn of 2004. We are now confident that we would be able to minimise the effects of the wind farm on birds through a combination of measures."
The company intends to present its updated proposals to the Scottish Executive and its advisers in the New Year.
"A Mighty Wind"
Listen to the rustle of a Mighty Wind.
Sure...and the Alaskan Pipeline was supposed to have horrible effects in Alaska too on the Caribou, etc. Turns out, the species they worried about are thriving.
Yep. Let's have a policy to implement renewable energy resources such as wind, hydro and solar, but then object to actually building them in any specific location.
That's an excellent way to reduce dependence on fossil fuels!
That could blow up quite a few kilts.
I still don't understand how these things can whack birds. I've seen thousands of them here in Cali, and even in high winds they are moving at maybe 2 or 3 RPM. I know the tips may be hauling ass, but you can see the three blades turning s-l-o-w-l-y.
Can birds see them, and avoid them?
"CONTROVERSIAL plans to build the world's largest wind farm on Lewis will have an "unprecedented impact" on endangered birds and wildlife and the island habitat that supports them, a major charity said yesterday."
"Condor Cuisinart Windmill Farm." I like it.
We can't do fossil fuels because they destroy the environment.
We can't do solar because it disturbs the wildlife.
We can't do hydro because it disturbs aquatic life.
We can't do nuclear because we'll all end up glowing in the dark.
WTF are we supposed to do? The environuts all just want us to live in caves.
Yeah. The wind turbines they have here in the desert off highway 10 near Palm Springs turn pretty slow. Way too slow to take out any passing birds, even on a very windy day. To me, they seem about as dangerous as those little spinning metal wires they put on top of billboards to keep the pigeons off.
Mission Impossible: Getting good things done efficiently when even
one environmentalist is around
OK then, let's build a couple or three fast breeder reactors there.
Only if we live with the bears and other creatures in the caves!!!!
Environmentalists hate wind energy. They oppose it every time.
The only time enviros favor wind energy is if you are building a gas-fired plant, or a coal-fired plant, or a nuke, or any other kind of power plant. Then they will propose wind energy as an alternative. But they only favor theoretical wind generators. Real wind generators they will fight every time.
Say, wind power is looking better and better. Could be that an unintended benefit is combatting the onslaught of a bird flu epidemic - "killing two birds with one propeller", if you will...
Hey now, that's PETA's mission statement.
Oh, great. Another article about Ted Kennedy.
Which statement he based on absolutely nothing at all. Just the usual anti-civilization rants of the loony left.
Hopefully more people will wake up and realize just what sort of people are behind the 'environmentalist' movement. These 'deep ecologist' are against anything that wont reduce the human population by about 90% with the other 10% living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
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