Today’s Droitwich Advertiser reports on calls from the so-called Tibberton Action Group (TAG) to reject the proposals for a medium size wind turbine at the Apex motocross site next to the M5 motorway despite a recommendation to pass by Wychavon planning officers. TAG claim the siting near to the motorway is dangerous even though the Highways Agency have given the project the all clear.
The 91m tall turbine would be 140m from the M5. Of note is the much larger 125m Ecotricity turbine in Reading which is only 150m from the M4. Clearly wind turbines can co-exist with major roads without incident since the severe weather conditions that cause ice to build up on the blades typically only happen one day per year in the UK. Keeping the turbine stopped until the ice has melted mitigates any risk. Still, TAG maintain that there is “a real risk of the turbine causing a major accident with significant loss of life” and that their “engineers” have calculated that huge lumps of ice could be thrown at 200mph to almost a kilometre away. No such evidence has been produced for scrutiny in their submission to the planning authority however.
Recent research papers have concluded the chance of being hit by ice thrown from a wind turbine at 150m is 1 in 1,000,000 which is about the same as the risk of getting struck by lightning. As above fitting ice sensors to detect the formation of ice before it becomes a problem almost completely eliminates any residual risk.
TAG also insinuate that the turbine will not be economically viable, although without the benefit of project capital costs this assertion can only be described as uninformed opinion at best and certainly not a valid planning matter on which the proposals could be refused. TAG point to the rumours that George Osbourne wants to redirect subsidies away from renewables and into nuclear power, however this highlights a misunderstanding of the current schemes since the Feed in Tariff is guaranteed until at least 2030 and at the prevailing rate (index linked) when the turbine becomes operational. Subsidies for future schemes may well drop but this would not affect operational plant. Furthermore, support for nuclear is at an all time low and expected to add £600 annually to the average household energy bill – compared to just £6 annually for wind.
In their most recent letter to the planning authority, TAG claim to have almost 90% support for their objections among villagers. However the Office of National Statistics lists Tibberton as having 482 residents in 194 dwellings. TAG have only 111 signatures on their petition which is less than 25%.
In a Worcester Evening News poll from earlier this year a whopping 67% of WEN readers said they supported wind turbines. In a recent poll for the Independent newspaper 68% of participants said wind power was an acceptable price for green energy with an even higher 79% in the 18-45 age groups.
DistGen MD, John Zamick said “the level of opposition has been somewhat surprising – you’d think that we were proposing a monster wind farm rather than a single medium sized turbine.”