The Ramblers have today warned that walkers will face a trebling in the number of large scale wind farms in the countryside in the next three years under the Government’s new wind-focussed energy plans. They have called for the Government to instigate a pyramidal approach to energy based on the 3 Es: Energy conservation, Energy efficiency and the development of Every renewable energy source.
In response to the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform’s draft UK Renewable Energy Strategy, a plan that will see thousands of large scale onshore wind farms erected at the expense of developing other renewables, the Ramblers have criticised the government’s ”pile ‘em high approach” to wind energy that “neglects the plethora of other technologies that could be used”. Such an approach will only contribute to the government’s own failure to effectively address climate change.
Ramblers Renewable Energy Campaigner, Davie Black, comments: “At a time when renewable energy is a national priority, the Government is tying one hand behind its back with a pile ’em high approach to wind energy that does little to encourage other technologies. The stop-and-start nature of the power produced by huge wind turbines will do little to replace fossil fuels driving climate change, whilst damaging the character of the countryside we are all trying to protect.”
Davie continued: “Three times the number of wind farms are planned for England and Wales than already exist, mainly concentrated in areas of exceptional natural beauty such as Northumberland, Yorkshire and Devon. In Scotland, 12 separate windfarm proposals will create a ‘ring of steel’ around the Cairngorns National Park which will be visible from the summit itself.”
Ramblers have particularly criticised the Renewable Obligation Certificates system that over-subsidises low cost technologies like large-scale onshore wind, while doing little to incentivise a broader range of technologies that are needed. Ramblers Director of Campaigns, Keith Roberts, comments: “With climate change a national priority, the Government must renounce their narrow wind focus and take a multi pronged approach to fossil fuel reduction, promoting energy conservation and reduction measures and backing every renewable technology at their disposal. Measures include creating a small scale energy infrastructure for local consumption to avoid huge transfer losses, and massively reducing road pollution by investing in walking and cycling schemes. Finally, government must look to the many technologies that exist to capture renewable energy instead of simply being winded by one”.
