Wind turbines on your door step?

[123sologne]

There are thousands of wind turbines all across France. There are quite a lot within a mile or so of our holiday home in Brittany.
They were interesting to look at the first few times we drove past now we do not even notice them.
The planet needs protecting and these generators need installing as soon as possible, everywhere.
Brittany is a beautiful place with turbines, I live in Poole which is a beatiful place near the New Forest which is another beatiful place and I would NOT object to turbines in either.
I think the objectors to renewable progress should have restrictions put on their personal energy usage.
I live in a property with solar PV , solar thermal and an air source heat pump, virtually every thing we own is "A" rated or low energy ,not only to help the planet , it also helps our finances.

I like the idea of restrictions for the ones who are against everything. Give them choices: We build a coal power station, a nuclear power station, a burning rubbish power station or turbines. You don't like any of them, well fine, we will cut your electricity let us say 2 days a week.

[JessieMac]

We have only one house a small two bedroom cottage,we get our heat and water using wood that we cut ourselves. We have a septic tank and a rainwater harvesting system. We have had one long flight and three short flights in our lives and have not been on holiday for seven years. We have one very small car and grow lots of our food,our bin goes out about four times a year everything else is recycled. We do not have a dishwasher/tv/tumble dryer or most of the power hungry things that seem to make up most lives.We buy most of our clothes from charity shops,we design and make most of our own furniture and make as little impact on the planet as we reasonably can.
I do not need nor deserve the snide comments that have been appearing in this thread and yes I could live with two days a week of power.
When I joined this forum I thought it was supportive of different viewpoints not destructive a mistake perhaps? Jessica

[niknik]

There´s a wind farm about 10 miles or so from here. I know a ot of the land owners got GOOD money for their land ( which wasnt very productive.if at all!)

1 Bonus. 1 family, who´d set up as estate agents ( reealrip -off merchatss. sold up their expnsive villa, and had bought an old cortijo, smack bang in the middle of the turbines. well they bought before the turbines went up of course. now they are stuck. ........ just desserts for them!

Personally I dont have anything against them. just a little worried by some which are very close to the road. if anything happened to them.cold be nasty.

[solarwind]

Mine aren't quite on the doorstep but about 50 metres away, if you press your ear to the towers you can hear them humming, like an underground train, only they're making electricity, not using it. I don't care whether they're "economic" or not, they're my friends , and I love them. Must get out more ....

[123sologne]

We have only one house a small two bedroom cottage,we get our heat and water using wood that we cut ourselves. We have a septic tank and a rainwater harvesting system. We have had one long flight and three short flights in our lives and have not been on holiday for seven years. We have one very small car and grow lots of our food,our bin goes out about four times a year everything else is recycled. We do not have a dishwasher/tv/tumble dryer or most of the power hungry things that seem to make up most lives.We buy most of our clothes from charity shops,we design and make most of our own furniture and make as little impact on the planet as we reasonably can.
I do not need nor deserve the snide comments that have been appearing in this thread and yes I could live with two days a week of power.
When I joined this forum I thought it was supportive of different viewpoints not destructive a mistake perhaps? Jessica

This is not a personal attack Jessica, but it is a fact that we do need to produce some electricity for building certain things. I suppose the other options are for everybody to have their own solar panels or their own small turbines. In cities on high buildings, turbines could be on the roofs, or solar panels. I have seen architects ideas in this field. My problem with people who are against turbines generally, is the fact that they are not very good at suggesting something else. They may not think it is their job, but we are all in it together, and if anybody has a better greater idea, please lets hear it, instead of the usual "not in my back garden".
Now as I said already, this is not a personal attack, just a general comment. It looks like you do not fit with the general happy wasting crowd I was thinking of here anyway...

[stevetc]

Maybe a bit more carrot and a bit less stick . . . Cheaper electricity, maybe, for people who have to live in real physical proximity to turbines.
Myself, i like the way they look and reckon them an improvement on non-sustainable power sources . . . I'd like a mini-one myself one day . . . But i can understand peoples' objections to them.

[dave45]

In cities on high buildings, turbines could be on the roofs

I wouldn't bother - window dressing only... google the Warwick Wind Trials for some real-world experience. My own experience (garage roof) agrees with this.

[123sologne]

Hum, I have not read the all thing as it looks a bit too detailed for me, but what it says on the first page sound pretty damning for the roof tops turbines... I must say, I think the architects ideas I had seen were for some very tall towers, the Dubbai type. Well that leaves us the good old solar panels. But hey, has anybody heard of other solutions which may be more revolutionary? If cities could produce their own energy, right down to villages, then you could have a countryside free from ugly electric cables too. Am I just asking for too much? I suppose that is the question at the end of the day: How far can we go to keep producing electricity so we do not go back to living like we did 200 years ago, but this electricity is clean and we do not have all the things we don't like about it?

[contadina]

Maybe a bit more carrot and a bit less stick . . . Cheaper electricity, maybe, for people who have to live in real physical proximity to turbines.

Or, more stick than carrot and charge all those who object more.

My mum grew up in the shadow of Battersea power station and the whole street used to get free electricity.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

there must be balance in all things to be sustainable and this is not the way to make more people rethink their lifestyle.

Quite. The point is not that these things are being built to allow us to consume MORE power but that we might be able to continue to consume at least some.

[dave45]

Am I just asking for too much?

yes. There is no way that enough energy can be produced from renewable sources to power our towns and cities at anywhere near the current levels of consumption. Read David Mackay's book on the scale of the problem http://www.withouthotair.com/

[greenorelse]

We have only one house a small two bedroom cottage,we get our heat and water using wood that we cut ourselves. We have a septic tank and a rainwater harvesting system. We have had one long flight and three short flights in our lives and have not been on holiday for seven years. We have one very small car and grow lots of our food,our bin goes out about four times a year everything else is recycled. We do not have a dishwasher/tv/tumble dryer or most of the power hungry things that seem to make up most lives.We buy most of our clothes from charity shops,we design and make most of our own furniture and make as little impact on the planet as we reasonably can.

I could have written that - but without the flights! Well done JessieMac, you're my kinda gal.

[zaxdog]

I also think balance is the key. I have no objection whatsoever to wind turbines, in fact on Lewis we used to enjoy looking at them but there is a big difference between having them in the view from your window or towering over your house metres from the end of your garden.

I am sorry to say that whilst I have found some great people since joining this forum there is an undercurrent of "holier than thou" amongst a few posters that I feel will put people off the forum rather than encouraging them to embrace this way of life in however small a way.

[123sologne]

Am I just asking for too much?

yes. There is no way that enough energy can be produced from renewable sources to power our towns and cities at anywhere near the current levels of consumption. Read David Mackay's book on the scale of the problem http://www.withouthotair.com/

Thank you for the link, I have now put the book in my wish list on Amazon. I supposed I knew the answer, I was just hopping it could be possible. But I would certainly be very interested in reading some serious data about it.

[dave45]

123sologne - just click the download button on that website if you'd prefer the PDF for your e-book reader or computer

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