Wind Farms

Wind farms have been a very controversial subject on the Isle of Lewis for many years. I first posted about them 10 years ago here. I won't try and make a case here for or against them but will simply say that I am qualifiedly in favour of them in principle. There have been and still are many proposals for wind farms on Lewis but real progress has been hampered by the lack of the multi-billion pound interconnector which would be needed to transfer the power generated to where it was needed on the Scottish and English mainland.
 

I will, however, tell you a short account of something that happened to me a few years ago. I was sitting in a hotel on one of my journeys in England or Scotland. A small but noisy gathering sitting adjacent to me were discussing windfarms. I was taking no notice until someone very loudly pronounced that "You would never see windfarms in New Zealand. They are too concerned with their environment and their tourism. They would never stand for them." I was about to ignore that when he started up again and I politely said that as they were speaking so loudly and it was impossible for me not to be in their debate I'd like to make a small contribution. They were quite amenable. I pointed out that I lived part time in New Zealand and that, in fact, New Zealand had the largest windfarms in the Southern Hemisphere and that they were an integral part of their 80+% reliance on thermal, water and wind energy for their electricity. I was invited to join their debate but having made my point I politely declined.
 

Part of the Te Apity wind farm with The Handbag in the foreground. I do miss the decade running around New Zealand with the lid off.

These are two of the windfarms in New Zealand in the Manawatu at Te Apiti and Tararua Ranges having 55 and 134 turbines respectively.

Wind farms and turbines generate a wide range of opinions from outright opposition to widespread acceptance. Opposition is due to noise, aesthetics and ecological factors. However New Zealand has one of the lowest carbon footprints from electricity generation in the world. These two windfarms are very prominent and claim to be a significant tourist attraction. Certainly I've seen lots of people stopping in the carparks to look and take pictures.

A Sunny December Day

It's been a terrible summer and autumn and I don't think here on Lewis we have had a period of 24 hours without rain since April. I may be wrong but not very! Today was different. The sun shone out of a clear blue sky and despite that it was a relatively balmy 6℃. When you get days like this on Lewis the light is truly fantastic and changes by the hour. So the mountains of Canisp (left) and Suilven on the Scottish mainland looked entirely different in the morning:  

and the afternoon:

and there's snow on them there hills:

The hills of Harris from the road over the moor from my house to the main road:

Even the wind-farm over the Stornoway outlying townships look spectacular:

The Old and The New

Last week I came across the Pentland Road from Achmore to Stornoway on Lewis. This was a road that I first travelled across forty years ago when the sheilings were still in use. They were situated out on the common pasture or grazings and the women of the household would move there in the summer with the sheep and cattle and their spinning wheels. They were often near the family's peat banks as well. I didn't actually realise what they were and as many were occupied I came to the conclusion that there was some very extreme poverty on Lewis if these were houses. Of course I was very quickly educated because by the 1970s these were mainly used (and a few still are) for holidays.

Now the moors are increasingly being littered with wind turbines and when driving across the moors sometimes the juxtaposition of the old and the new becomes very apparent.

This last picture gives one an idea of just how massive these structures are. The trees near the base of the crane and turbine are reasonably mature.

Like Topsy* They Grow

Green energy.  Of course I'm in favour.  Am I convinced of the economic voracity?  Am I a NIMBY?  I don't know.  I believe that the largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere is in New Zealand.  It is sited all along the top of a range of mountains.  It is huge.  It is visible for miles and miles around and it's a significant tourist attraction.  It's  astonishingly beautiful. It provides a lot of New Zealand's electricity.  It's also a long way from any habitation.  So why have I got an uneasy feeling about the ones which are springing up around the Stornoway area.  Somehow their vague randomness seems  more intrusive and untidy.   One minute you have this:

and the next you have this:

* For those who don't know who Topsy was she was Topsy a young slave girl in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. When asked if she knows who made her, she professes ignorance of both God and a mother, saying "I s'pect I growed"

At New Brighton

When I was a wee totey thing there was, far far away from where I lived in Liverpool a seaside resort called New Brighton. It was near enough to go for a day out but even that involved a bus or tram to Pier Head in Liverpool and a ferry across the Mersey (you'll know that, of course from the song by Gerry and The Pacemakers) to New Brighton. One day I'll find my old photos of the ferry and post them.

Today CJ and Jo live on the same side of the Mersey as New Brighton and today we decided to go and explore. We found a few things were still there but the rest of the town at its centre had been virtually rebuilt in recent years: new seaside blocks of desirable apartments.

Our carriage for our recent outings has been the trusty Nighthawk Tourer (also known by one of my neighbours as The Hearse). Today she was honoured with a wash whilst we were in a garden centre.

The Burbo Bank Offshore Wind Farm is a wind farm located on the Burbo Flats in Liverpool Bay at the entrance to the River Mersey.

The Perch Rock battery was completed in 1829. It mounted 18 guns, mostly 32 pounders, with 3 6" guns installed in 1899. Originally cut off at high tide, coastal reclamation has since made it fully accessible. It was built to protect the Port of Liverpool and as a fortified lighthouse to replace the old Perch Rock Light. It was originally built on an area known as Black Rock and was cut off at high tide, but now coastal reclamation has made it fully accessible. It is currently open as a museum.

New Brighton Lighthouse was originally known as Perch Rock Lighthouse and construction began in 1827. Since 1 October 1973 it has not been in use as a lighthouse, having been superseded by modern navigational technology. In the background on the other side of the River Mersey is the Crosby Coastguard Station.

Windmills

The first time I saw a herd of windmills (what is the collective? Farm?) was in one of the valleys of North Wales. I was struck by the noise which was audible to me on the other side of the valley. They did not strike me as ugly though but as things of considerable elegance and beauty. Of course I wouldn't want them near my back yard and I have yet to be convinced that they are economically viable but those are arguments for other people and another place. The next large windmill I can recall seeing and getting very close to was on Orkney sitting right on top of a hill in a very prominent position. It was a very popular tourist attraction! In New Zealand's North Island on top of some of the most prominent mountains is a very large wind farm. It is accepted and must be one of the most viewed and photographed attractions.

The argument over wind farms on Lewis has raged for a while and will doubtless continue to rage for a while yet. Personally I have never believed that their coming was imminent because without the interconnector to the mainland there would be no point. I cannot see the Government spending the billions of pounds necessary for that at the moment - if ever. The refusal of the largest application by the Scottish Executive would seem to support that view. However we do have three in North Lochs standing in a seemingly very odd location and, since I arrived back this time, usually working.

"Welcome earthmen"