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[admin]

One MLA has hailed what he sees as an assurance that NI Water’s land in the Mourne Mountains will be protected against wind turbines.

UKIP’s David McNarry grilled company representatives at the Stormont’s Regional Development committee last week, asking if the current Reservoirs Bill offered protection against wind farms being dotted around its properties.

He was told in response that whilst it is not the bill’s purpose: “The protection of those catchment lands is very much within our gift and that of our shareholder unit and the regulator,” and also: “There is nothing to compel NI Water to accept any structure on any land.”

Afterwards, Mr McNarry said: “I’m delighted to have it put on official record that wind turbines in the Mournes on land belonging to NI Water is not going to happen.”

In October, when the News Letter asked questions about leasing land for wind farms – something mentioned in one of its draft strategy documents – the DRD (which owns NI Water) had said: “NI Water currently has no plans to lease land for wind turbines in the Mournes.”

http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/regional/david-mcnarry-mourne-turbines-won-t-happen-1-5885770

[LandyLiam]

But NI Water only own inside the Mourne Wall, that leaves an awful lot more of the Mournes available for turbines!

[Rich.H]

Whilst this is good news I do wonder if he has some other plan for where to place wind farms? If he does not have some scheme to get them into more urban areas then you have to guess at what the point of saving the Mourne landscape is. For pretty much any of us to enjoy the Mournes requires a vast amount of electricity usage and it has to come from somewhere other than fossil sources.

[RedLeader]

This is a very fair point. When it comes to power generation NIMBYism is rife. I don't really see them as a blot on the landscape either as long as they're installed in an environmentally sound fashion. Fair point from LandyLiam too, just because the Water Board says no doesn't rule out a huge area of the Mournes. Plus that's the current stance of the WB, that could change quickly!

Whilst this is good news I do wonder if he has some other plan for where to place wind farms? If he does not have some scheme to get them into more urban areas then you have to guess at what the point of saving the Mourne landscape is. For pretty much any of us to enjoy the Mournes requires a vast amount of electricity usage and it has to come from somewhere other than fossil sources.

[Rich.H]

I've camped in Donegal a few years ago on a mountain area that had a wind farm, and fair enough the farm section was full of huge white noisy things that you could hear easily from 500m or so away. But after around 20 mins or so walking from the farm section the general area was pretty much as you would expect from that area of the county. There was just as much nature as you would expect with or without the windmills, and none of it seemed bothered.

All in all the only thing I have every found to be a problem with wind farms is that yes you loose out on one very small section of a panorama for taking pictures from. As to the nimby folk complaints I have to laugh sometimes, many if not a majority of these sites are based in rural areas and get complaints about the noise and such. Yet you never hear about the noise coming from the local farmers and anyone who has lived within a half mile or so of a farm can attest that they do kick up a racket at all hours. Perhaps folks need to start to accept part of the country way of life includes not just noisy smelly farms but a little noise from turbines too.

One thing about this that I find amusing is how the WB will turn away wind farms with some hogwash about preserving natural beauty etc. Yet happily allow sheep to strip mine anything that resembles a natural environment away from the top soil. I guess as long as you have fluffy tales and can make the odd person go "ahhhhh cute" then you become exempt from responsibility.

[sjh1]

One thing about this that I find amusing is how the WB will turn away wind farms with some hogwash about preserving natural beauty etc. Yet happily allow sheep to strip mine anything that resembles a natural environment away from the top soil. I guess as long as you have fluffy tales and can make the odd person go "ahhhhh cute" then you become exempt from responsibility.

Well said! I don't like turbines much myself but intensive grazing is a much bigger threat to the environment.

In present condition (and excluding the non-native conifer plantations which support a few extra birds) there are less than twenty larger(!) animal species regular in the high Mournes. I can name sixteen off the top of my head: meadow pipit, skylark, wheatear (in summer), stonechat, wren, red grouse (rare), ring ouzel (very rare), raven, kestrel, peregrine, (Irish) mountain hare, common lizard, red fox, wood mouse, pygmy shrew, feral goat. This is a severely depleted fauna for such a large area and that's due to the lack of natural vegetation. There will probably be more bird species in your garden. Of these species raven and peregrine might be affected by wind turbines but they are two adaptable birds that can handle quite a bit of disturbance. The others shouldn't be affected at all.

Saying that, purely on aesthetic grounds I would not want wind turbines in the high Mournes.

[Rich.H]

It's Always one of my favourite games to play with wildlife stands at shows and such is to ask them to show me figures for diversity. Extremely low numbers of so called wild spaces have any real sort of diverse population. You often see the various coastal groups showing tanks with a cut out glass square for children to see how many fish/shrimp etc they can spot in a given area. I like to ask forestry commission and national trust folks to do the same and see the stumped looks.

[whoRya]

Mountaineering Ireland have published their submission into an inquiry on the generation of energy through wind.

Mountaineering Ireland

Some interesting points raising questions such as whether we are close to having enough of these already?  Whether our planning approval process is robust enough or even of a similar standard to elsewhere in the UK?  About the location of wind farms?

It's an area I'm really quite uncomfortable with.  I don't believe that many of the industry players are the least bit sympathetic to the reasons for renewable energy generation - other than the marketing side of their business.  I think there is a gold rush on and people are making good money at it.

What provision has been made for restoration of wind farm sites once their need has been diminished?  We've got to believe that with innovation whatever technology is best suited for now may not be in the future.  If I knew what the next thing was I wouldn't be on here - I'd be doing it!

Are the developers regulated for the restoration work?  Have they to meet the cost of that work?  What if they don't?

Regulation on this seems underdeveloped at present - it seems like the current policy is "we'll see what happens".  This report by Scottish Natural Heritage seems to only be at the stage of beginning conversations on this, yet we are approving all these developments.

I've seen mountain tops when they are finished with tv/radio transmitters and I've walked up the "military road" on a few also.  The concrete and metal is left there     

[Rich.H]

That's an interesting read there with some very valid point. They do however miss out on some of the root issues. The report states that advances in turbine technology means you can make wind farms on areas such as abandoned industrial estates etc. This would be fine if it were not for one major issue that is a systemic problem. Our energy needs are growing, and are growing at an ever increasing rate. This is due to one and one problem only, population numbers.

It is simple maths that more people will use more light bulbs, phones, cookers etc. Since the population is constantly growing then that energy requirement will grow inline with population. This problem then also totally removes the ability to build farms in lowland areas already used by humans, simply because that area is now needed for housing, housing costs are related to how hard it is to build in an area. Thus it is far cheaper to repurpose an old industrial region for housing than to try and build a housing estate in the side of a mountain area. Wind farms on the other hand need very little infrastructure in comparison and so can be built anywhere.

The report does make good arguments but as per usual with any report of this nature the authors always seem to be scared of pointing out the elephant in the room. Now matter how efficient turbines are now or how many they place, it simply will not work. The next real energy technology will be fusion based however that is likely at least 40-50 years away from domestic use. The report states we have farms that can power around half of NI households as of the 2011 census. I wonder just how many extra houses have been built since then? Overall I find it hard to be even slightly sympathetic towards the report when the authors do not have the courage to point out the root problem and tip toe around symptoms instead.

[RedLeader]

Totally agree. The Governments of the world are being very short sighted as far as planning for the next century of power. Politicians need to stop propping up the fossil fuel industry.
The world needs a Manhattan Project for new energy generation technologies, the only trouble is they needed to do it about 20 years ago.

[Ed]

This is the kinda stuff that comes up around the campfire about 10ish - before everyone gets totally plastered and starts talking about space aliens, the singularity and teleportation at around midnight :-)

[Glenn B]

This is the kinda stuff that comes up around the campfire about 10ish - before everyone gets totally plastered and starts talking about space aliens, the singularity and teleportation at around midnight :-)

Hahahahaa a good old clear sky has brought out the alien discussion in all of us..
They're up there you know

[RedLeader]

This is the kinda stuff that comes up around the campfire about 10ish - before everyone gets totally plastered and starts talking about space aliens, the singularity and teleportation at around midnight :-)

Hahahahaa a good old clear sky has brought out the alien discussion in all of us..
They're up there you know

[polroger]

Nano Nano!!

[Glenn B]

Nano Nano!!

You're showing your age there auld hand..

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