Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
Display:
There are a number of domestic-scale windmills near where I live.

They received planning permission, and were built - in an official Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, no less, with plenty of weather to keep them running.

But they don't seem to last. Small-scale wind doesn't give as much of a return as passive solar or rooftop PVs.

There are quite a few houses with PVs now. And some large PV schemes.

But they don't always last, either.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Mar 10th, 2015 at 05:42:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, the latter one is a case of illegal planning permission. One thing our local group is fighting against is the tendency for private-sector initiatives to attempt to co-opt local authorities for hush-hush operations, which local elected officials can be tempted by because they know there'll be opposition to renewables projects among their voters. Keeping it all under wraps inevitably ends up by energising the opposition, who can quite reasonably complain that technocrats and private interests are imposing renewables on the population. The wedge-issue effect is potent.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue Mar 10th, 2015 at 06:43:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]
I can understand people having issues with windmills. I don't necessarily agree, but I can understand it.

I'm baffled why anyone would want to dismantle a giant PV farm when they didn't even notice it being built.

It's not as if it spoiled their view, or changed the value of their property, or it makes a noise, or lights up in the dark, or gangs of rogue PV panels go stalking the landscape at full moon forcing people to vote Green at gunpoint.

There was a public consultation in the village hall before the farm was built. I very much doubt that Wilts Council failed to hammer the usual notices to the usual telegraph poles, or that this was the evil work of a single rogue planning officer.

Basically this is being attacked on a technicality. It's possible the appeal will succeed, but I guess that depends in part on what happens at the next election.

by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Tue Mar 10th, 2015 at 09:08:37 AM EST
[ Parent ]
But the Important People who own the Valuable Properties don't read notices tacked to telephone poles, and probably don't know that the village hall exists.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
by eurogreen on Tue Mar 10th, 2015 at 11:10:31 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Display:

Occasional Series