Went driving round the Fens and since I went there last September the number of these wind things has increased. In one area within viewing distance I counted 21 of these great things. Seems more are to be erected. When I mentioned this to the farmers they seem to be slightly disinterested. Can't say I was impressed but then I don't live there. cheers Penny.

I was rather upset a couple of years ago, whilst staying in the Lake District, to see a load of them standing on the top of one of the peaks (couldn't say where it was because we were driving homewards at the time).

They even supply little ones you can put on your roof - surely they must be a bit noisy!

Don't think I would like on here, apart from looking out of place they are very expensive and take years to get any pay-back. On the other hand a friend of ours in Norfolk has a smaller version in his field and runs his whole place on electricity from it and also has surplus which he sells to the grid. I suppose it depends on how you want to use it, see it, and if it's worth the cost. I understand the Conservative head, David, had one put on his roof and has been ordered to remove it. Can't remember why. cheers Penny

Yeah be a lot better to build coal fired and nuclear powered stations.
Oh of course that is provided they are in your back yard and not mine.

I wonder if the folk in their day said the same thing about windmills. You know those thing we now find so quaint and quintessentially English.

We absolutely have to look at other ways of generating electricity - gas, coal and oil are not sustainable and nuclear is too dangerous. They may not look so pretty but they are desperately needed.

Rowan in my sarcastic way that is exactly the point I was making.
Everyone decries wind turbines but they are tall and graceful. There only problem is they are new as were windmills at one time.
When in Cornwall last year we say many clusters of these wind turbines and to Gina and myself well they looked graceful and more importantly non-threatening.

There are quite a few in Cornwall, they dont look to bad, they want to put some on a moor near ware we often go looking for the Peregrines the down side these bird can be killed flying into the windmill.

These were installed a few years ago and at that time there was a bit of an uproar from locals but it has proved to be a property advantage when selling as people love to see them:

Not in areas of natural outstanding beauty please! This is not only our heritage but ours to pass on to future generations.

Wind turbines have their place no doubt, but in brownfield sites only!

I wonder if that is what our ancestors said about windmills?

Well they are trying to put up hundreds of these things in different parts of Scotland. In one area they are putting up some 300 with all the infrastructure that goes with them. The locals are up in arms but have little say in the matter.

A line of very high pylons right across the hills is being considered but there is a public inqiery into this. Most people want the cables to go underground.

The big complaint is that the electricity generated is not for use in Scotland but for down south.............not an English v Scotland argument.

More and more people are being taken in by the great global warming con after hearing only one side of the argument.

In Caithness, we have the Causwaymire Windfarm which produces enough electricity to do Caithness............if there was any facility to plug it direct into the County electricity sustem............................plus two other sites which give a total of 38 windmills currently working.

We have, in total, 18 proposed sites, 3 currently in production, 1 in construction and 3 approved...a total altogether of 51 windmills producing 85.25MW capacity...which is around 35 MW more than Caithness needs in power terms.

But we also have 6 sites submitted for approval, producing 229 MW, 2 of which are very close to 2 of the most important archeological sites in the County...the Camster Cairns and the Yarrows Trail.

Plus there are 4 sites with 129 windmills being waved around at us before submission, producing another 286 MW, and 1 under appeal with 12 windmills and 36 MW production.........and of course, there is also the proposed massive offshore windfarm I will be able to see from the window.

In the beautiful Highlands, including the West Coast, there are 50 sites, working and proposed, producing, eventually, hundreds of MW electricity....and there will be enormous pylons marching across the most scenic areas carrying that electricity...............for whom?

Scotland is self sufficient in electricity without windmills, and exports to England and Ireland as it is.

I have always been for windmills, and think they are rather elegant, but where I have the problem is our landscape being trashed by the siting of so many sites/windmills, and ourtourism, wild-life etc being harmed so that we in the North can export electricity to the NIMBY areas in the South.

Out of interest, can anyone tell me how many wind turbines there are/are proposed in England and Wales?

Oddie there are many in Cornwall and quite a few in Norfolk and off the Norfolk Coast but every time new sites are suggested the Nimbys come out in force.
I think many would prefer nuclear or coal power stations providing they are somewhere else.

Victors Mate wrote:I wonder if that is what our ancestors said about windmills?

VM - the areas of natural outstanding beauty are not ours to desecrate. They belong also to the next, and the next and the next generatations ad infinitum! We MUST keep them in the state that nature gave to them. There are plenty of other places these structures can go.

Well personally I'd rather see (as Oddie says the rather elegant windmills) than enormous power stations making our landscapes not only ugly but damned dangerous. I don't want future generations glowing in the dark - however cheap it is.