Letter: We need to embrace windfarms

10:43am Wednesday 14th May 2008

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I READ with interest recent correspondence regarding the proposed Armistead windfarm near Old Hutton (Windfarm will blow peace away').

One would think, given the strong voice of dissent voiced in these pages, that wind energy received little or no support among the public at large.

Thus it may be surprising to learn that this is far from being the case. Opinion surveys regularly show that just over eight out of ten people are in favour of wind energy, with only one in 20 against.

Indeed, a poll carried out at Lambrigg (the nearest wind farm to the proposed Armistead site), found that 74 per cent of local residents supported their wind farm, and that, of those initially against, only one in four remained so (to read more, see http://www.bwea.com/ref/lambrigg.html).

I have no reason to doubt that a similar level of support exists for the proposed Armistead windfarm, given that it is only a few miles distant. That this majority is less vocal than those passionately against is of no surprise, since passive support of a project is rarely enough to stir one to action.

The wind farm at Armistead will comprise six 100m turbines that will generate enough electricity to supply, on average, the domestic electricity requirements for 15 per cent of the households in South Lakes - an impressive number of houses.

The six turbines will also be operational 80-85 per cent of the time - a fact that will hopefully qualm the eco-madness' fears of an earlier correspondent (Westmorland Gazette Letters, May 2).

The carbon cost of manufacture and installation will be paid off in the first three-six months of operation, after which all the electricity produced at the site for the next 20-25 years will be pollution free. Therefore, let's be clear about wind: it is a proven technology and is the most advanced form of renewable energy we have. Furthermore, we need it.

The UN's Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that emissions of green house gases must be on the decrease by the middle of the next decade (seven years from now) if we are to have a realistic chance of avoiding a likely catastrophic rise in global temperatures. At present, emissions continue to rise alarmingly, not least in the United Kingdom.

Thus to those who vehemently insist that wind farms are a crime against landscapes, I have only this to say: six turbines by the side of a motorway will not destroy the Cumbrian landscape.

Wind farms are easily pulled down and the landscape restored to its former use, should they no longer be needed in the future. Climate change, however, is not reversible. The damage it will cause to our fells, lakes, fauna and flora cannot be undone.

Those who maintain defiant objection to wind farms on the basis of protecting landscapes are, sadly, unwittingly sewing the very seeds of its destruction.

The wind farm at Armistead deserves our strongest support, and I, for one, will be doing my utmost to give it just that.

Dr Sonny Khan South Lakes Action on Climate Change Kendal