Not everyone agrees, of course. I’m originally from Texas, where my Sister and I have a small ranch that adjoins our Mother’s small farm. Our land is only 237 acres, but just a week or so ago in a phone chat I told her I want to find out if we can interest a wind turbine company in the possibility of erecting a wind turbine farm on our land, which for the 20 years we’ve had it since we inherited it has produced a net of just about zero return, *maybe* just about enough to cover the annual property taxes. I mentioned a story I had read about a rancher further west who did that, and was not only making a bundle leasing his land, but who could still run livestock — and help his area (and himself) get cheaper electricity than was previously available.

The catch? The wind turbines are about 20 storeys tall, and my Sister pointed out, rightly, that our Mom would throw a hissy fit. (”NIMBY!!!”) This can be mitigated, in our case, as our property is shaped, bascially, like an extra-fat regular pencil — long and relatively skinny. Both my Sister’s home and our Mother’s are at one end; there’s ample space to put enough wind turbines at the far end, about a mile away (with an interveninng hill that would block views of the lower parts).

And by locating offshore in England, the view considerations are lessened. Further, maybe it’s time to adopt a new acronym: “MYBIOK” — “My Backyard Is Okay.”

Mekhong Kurt,
Bangkok, Thailand

I don’t suppose any of the writers are interested in keeping us informed in terms of environmental politics at all? There’s the hugely important Bali talks happening as I write this, which will have a much greater impact on the future of our planet than anything else featured here, which would surely be of interest. Knowing what the media are like in the US an unbiased, international point of view on these sorts of subject might be hugely informative?

Anyway Littleuldav, the weather’s not that bad over here, although I get what you’re saying! The sky is grey a reasonable amount of the time, but when the weather’s poor people don’t tend to go to the coast, so wouldn’t look out to sea then anyway. But as I say, these turbines will simply become part of the landscape (or seascape) and people will get used to them. I also agree with Dan, when you see these sharp, slim, elegantly engineered structures placed within ruggled, windswept landscapes I think they look beautiful. I do however agree with clustering them so that there are plenty of areas without them in view.

Anyway, if they were made out of wood, with a little window half way up, a door on the bottom with Windy Miller walking out now and again…. I don’t think anybody would be complaining.

Never forget that they will be located in England.
The weather is so bad there, that most of the times you have grey sky, if not heavy haze.
Those wind turbines will be located miles from the coast, and in front of a grey sky, or even light haze, they won’t even be visible at all.

No kidding, i live 200 km from there and i know what i mean. You have no idea of what it is not seeing the sun for several weeks …

Perhaps we should instead pay attention to the many ships ( fishers and cargos) that will pass by, sometimes in bad weather. Coolision prevention should be looked carefully.