"Wind farms are a wonderful source of renewable energy"
Since when?
In the words of Sir Martin Holdgate , Chairman of the 1992 Renewable Energy
Advisory Board and former Government Scientific Advisor:
"They have a huge spatial footprint for a piddling bit of electricity".

www.countryguardian.net

www.wind-farm.org
--------------------------------------------

Daily Telegraph

An ill wind blowing?
(Filed: 14/02/2004)

Wind farms are a wonderful source of renewable energy. But have you tried
living near one? As Ross Clark reports, they can seriously damage the value
of your house

When the mist lifts from the back of Barry Moon and Gillian
Haythornthwaite's four-bedroom home, Poaka Beck House, near Askam in the
southern foothills of the Lake District, the eye is greeted by something out
of Teletubbyland. On top of the green hillside, 550 yards away, sits an
almost surreal image of four enormous, bright white, 360ft wind turbines.


A bitter blow: Barry Moon and Gillian Haythornwaite did not realise they
were buying a home in the vicinity of a wind farm
Unlike Teletubbyland, however, the inhabitants are not in the habit of
cuddling the owners of the turbines and saying how much they love each
other. In fact, the wind farm has turned into one of an increasing number of
battlegrounds between homeowners and the Government over its "green" energy
policy.

Barry and Gillian bought their home for £132,500 in 1997, knowing that plans
for the wind farm had been mooted but believing that they had been rejected
by Barrow Borough Council. What the couple didn't realise, even though they
lived only a mile away in the village of Ireleth, was that the developers of
the farm, Powergen, had appealed against the council decision and had won
the right to put their case at a public inquiry. Shortly after Barry and
Gillian moved into Poaka Beck House, the inquiry found in Powergen's favour.

"The first thing we knew about it was when we saw a notice saying that the
road running past the site would be closed for the construction of a wind
farm," says Barry. When the turbines were switched on, the couple realised
immediately that they would be unable to live with the noise, even though it
has been found to exist within the guidelines for wind farms laid down by
the Department of Trade & Industry - that it should not emit more than five
decibels above background noise.

"One of the myths put out by the industry is that a wind farm sounds like a
stream from 50 yards. We've got a stream running through our garden and if
you stand by it, you can hear the whooshing of the turbines above the water.
I've lived the same distance from the M3 and that didn't bother me anything
like as much as the wind farm."

The couple complained to Barrow Borough Council and were asked to keep
detailed records of the noise, which they did for two years. After some
persuasion, Powergen fitted the turbines with a system that shuts down the
offending four turbines - three more are concealed behind the hill -
whenever the wind blows from a certain direction and when Barry and Gillian
are likely to be at home. But the system doesn't deal with the visual
impact, nor with the strange flickering that the couple experience some
evenings as the blades reflect the rays of the sun.

Had they known about the wind farm, say Barry and Gillian, they would not
have bought Poaka Beck House. Yet the plans did not show up in the local
searches - which, contrary to what many homebuyers believe, deal only with
planning applications and decisions affecting the property you are buying or
adjacent properties. Neither were Barry and Gillian warned about the wind
farm by the vendors, David and Diane Holding.

For the Holdings, this turned out to be an expensive omission. In their
Sellers' Property Information Form - part of the sales contract - the couple
answered "No" to the question "Have you had any negotiations or discussions
with any neighbour or any other authority which affect the property in any
way?" In fact, as Barry and Gillian discovered when sifting through
correspondence kept by Barrow Borough Council, the Holdings had written
letters of objection about the wind farm, complaining that it would reduce
the value of their property by between 50 and 75 per cent. Last month, Barry
and Gillian were awarded £15,000 in damages against the Holdings.

The district judge explained that he arrived at that figure by listening to
the arguments of chartered surveyors employed by both sides and concluding
that the wind farm reduced the value of Poaka Beck House by 20 per cent. In
1997, the property would have been worth £150,000, had there been no plans
for a wind farm, he ruled. Had the farm been in place at that time, on the
other hand, the property would have been worth only £120,000. As Barry and
Gillian had paid £132,500, they were entitled to £12,500 in damages plus
interest, bringing the total to £15,000.

The case has important repercussions because the wind-farm industry has
argued for some time that turbines do not devalue homes. Indeed, until
recently the website of the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) stated,
under the heading "Top 10 myths about wind farms", that "the proximity of a
wind energy development does not adversely affect property prices".

The website quotes a MORI poll conducted in Scotland into the attitudes of
local residents towards wind farms. The poll found that only 7 per cent of
people living within 15km of a wind farm considered that it had a negative
impact upon an area. Closer inspection, however, revealed that only 12 per
cent of respondents could see the farm from their property. Moreover, the
experience of somebody living 15km away can hardly be compared with somebody
living 500 metres away.

"Barry Moon's house is one property near one wind farm," says BWEA
spokeswoman Alison Hill. "There is no evidence that property values anywhere
else have been affected. In fact, values of many properties near wind farms
have risen. However, in the light of Mr Moon's case, we have amended our
website. It is likely that we will commission a study from the Royal
Institution of Chartered Surveyors or FPDSavills, which will clear up the
matter for good."

There has been keen interest in the Poaka Beck case at Tebay, 20 miles up
the M6. There, a pressure group called No Whinash Wind Farm is fighting
plans to erect what would be Britain's largest wind energy installation,
made up of 27 turbines, each 350ft high, on top of a 700ft-high ridge. As
part of its campaign, the group distributed a standard letter which local
residents could sign and send off to the Department of Trade & Industry. The
next they knew was that the developer of the proposed wind farm, West Coast
Energy Ltd, had complained to the Advertising Standards Authority over a
claim that wind farms detract from property values.

Last summer, a semi-derelict house, Bretherdale Hall, was advertised for
auction. The auctioneer predicted it would sell for £280,000, but between
being advertised and coming to auction, the planning application for the
wind farm was submitted and the property fetched only £200,000.

"To me, it is absolute common sense that if you put up huge industrial
structures in an exceptionally beautiful area, property prices are going to
suffer," says Kyle Blue, who lives two miles from the site of the proposed
farm and works with local estate agency Penrith Farmers' & Kidd's.

"The agency was trying to sell a beautifully restored farmhouse for
£340,000. We told one prospective buyer about the wind farm and he said: 'It
doesn't bother me. My family and I are very green and supportive of this
kind of energy.' Then he went away and visited wind farms all over the
country. Three weeks later he came back to us and said he couldn't come to
terms with the development after all. We had to take the property off the
market and it remains unsold."

Love them or loathe them, we are going to have to get used to fighting
applications for wind farms. Unless you live in the doldrums of lowland
central England, the chances are there is an installation coming soon to
somewhere near you.

Thanks to its signing of the Kyoto agreement on global warming, the
Government has committed itself to a vast expansion of renewable energy,
even though consumers are already paying a huge hidden subsidy for it. By
2010, 10 per cent of Britain's electricity must come from renewable sources,
and by 2015, a further 5 per cent. In addition to the 82 wind farms already
operating, a further 57 already have planning permission.

Were it not that they form part of a "green" agenda - and let's face it,
most people are in favour, in principle, of more environmentally friendly
sources of energy - there is no way that such tall, industrial structures
would be being built in the places they are - which, by the nature of their
demands, tend to be scenic upland or coastal landscapes. Nor would they be
allowed so near to homes. Quite apart from the noise nuisance, there is the
question of safety. A study at Darmstadt University, in Germany, revealed
that ice forming on the blades or turbines in still, cold evenings can be
thrown up to a third of a mile when the wind gets up. Moreover, it revealed
that in some cases the blades of wind turbines had broken, sending fragments
flying up to 300 yards.

In fairness, the sight of wind turbines does not distress everybody. The
BWEA claims that some sites have become tourist attractions and that
operators have had to build lay-bys to accommodate cars and coaches. (At the
Delabole wind farm in Cornwall, the first in Britain, a visitor centre has
recently been built, and at a wind farm in Swaffham, Norfolk, visitors can
look at the turbines from a viewing platform.)

But even fans have to admit that the future for the industry probably lies
out to sea. In December, the country's first large-scale wind farm was
opened off the North Wales coast. However magnificent the sight of the seven
Askam turbines, they are only supplying the equivalent of 2,891 homes with
electricity - barely enough for the small nearby town of Ulverston, let
alone Barrow-in-Furness. With more than 20 million households in Britain, it
is going to be impossible for the Government to get anywhere near reaching
its targets for wind power without provoking mass protest on the coasts and
fells.