Turbines weren’t designed for here

There are currently proposals for 42 wind turbines within 10 miles of us. It is a commonly held belief that onshore wind energy is free and of great benefit, to the electricity generating capacity of the country. These turbines at the height of Salisbury Cathedral will have a considerable visual effect on all of us for generations to come.

The five wind turbines proposed for Knightcote Bottoms is the closest by far to all of us. The five turbines and a new weather mast will tower above the Burton Dassett hills in order to catch the best of the wind. Their generating capacity is deemed to be sufficient to serve 4,500 houses were the wind to blow all the time. The current met mast results seem to indicate that the energy produced will just be sufficient to cover Bishops Itchington only, approximately 1,000 homes.

Each turbine will cost about £500,000 to erect and the developer receives approximately £1m in subsidies out of your pocket to build it. Yes the cost of building is in the future tariff we all must pay. The Gaydon Road will for the build period, have a further 10,000 extra lorry movements or 2,000 lorries per turbine. There will be a new haul road to build between the Gaydon Road and Knightcote Bottoms, to enable construction. This is to carry the 300 tons of concrete required for each turbine. This new road will then be used for maintenance. The new cabling required to carry the energy created will then either go under the motorway to Gaydon or to the hub in Bishops Itchington, more construction new pylons etc. The carbon footprint of this construction is vast and wholly undesirable, far outweighing any benefit gained over 25 years.

So now we have free energy! Wind is variable and for your cooker to cook the dinner, variable energy is most undesirable. So to balance each period of non production a conventional power station is required. So the real gain to the consumer of free wind energy is considerably diminished furthermore the owner of the turbines receives more in subsidy than we consumers pay per unit of electricity now. So the free energy created by the turbine is more expensive that that produced by a conventional power station.

I am all in favour of renewable energy, even wind turbines in areas where there is good reliable wind. That cannot be true of valleys in Warwickshire. The Government is very keen to see renewables everywhere, but they were never designed for valleys in Shakespeare Country, with very little wind. - Richard Hamburger, Stratford district councillor.