Wind and Democracy

Here in South Devon, TRESOC, the Totnes Renewable Energy Society, is aiming to advance on all renewable energy fronts. This year should see progress on a couple of solar projects, a wood fuel heating scheme, a clever anaerobic digestion project, and perhaps even a micro-hydro system. But the flagship project, the Totnes Community Wind Farm, has kicked up a small but vocal opposition. It plans to erect two commercial wind turbines just outside of town at Luscombe Cross, near the villages of Harberton and Harbertonford.

I should declare my interest right up front. I’m a shareholder, my partner’s a director, and I’m friends with the other directors and many other shareholders. I stand to gain financially from their success – perhaps as much as a whopping £4 annual dividend on my £100 investment. But I’m much more committed to their success because I believe renewable energy will create a better future.

This turbine project has been in the planning process for over a year. The site, it turns out, is the only site in the area suitable for this kind of installation and it can only support two turbines. Together, they will have the capacity to power 2,500 homes every year. After the design work, there have been several public consultations, including workshops to address concerns held by nearby villagers about height, noise, danger to birds and bats, power lines, maintenance activity, and so on. The next step is the application for planning permission, slated for April with a decision expected sometime in August.

Currently in Britain, only about half the proposed on-shore wind projects are granted planning permission. So, it’s coin toss. This fact is shocking when you first hear it, especially when considered in the context of other important facts. For example, we need to radically reduce the amount of green house gases emitted into the atmosphere. “We”, as in the industrial West, who are responsible for a historically large percentage of it. “Radical”, as in a drop of something like 50% or more by 2030 here in the UK. We have to act fast and on multiple fronts. Anyone who’s science literate knows it.

The debate about “why” we have to do this is over. The science is in, but just as there were legions of medieval slowpokes who refused to acknowledge the helio-centric model, there are those, mostly older white men as it turns out, who believe anthropogenic global warming is a hoax. Granted, Copernicus didn’t quite nail it – the sun’s in motion, too. And there’s no doubt that there’s more to learn about the earth’s climate system, including the effects of human activities - the activities of all living things, for that matter. But nearly every climate scientist agrees – the planet’s warming and our fossil-fuelled industrial way of life is responsible. It’s not a hoax, it is reality.

But the debate about “how” trundles on, that is, how can we stop spewing so much carbon in such a short period of time? Britain is one of the windiest countries in Europe and on-shore wind must be a major part of Britain’s energy portfolio. But fossil fuel industry executives also know the facts, as do their politicians. That the rhetoric coming from each is full of deception should surprise no one. Call it greed or cynicism, but their interests are served by telling lies, openly and over and over again, until they become as unremarkably familiar as the drone of the M25, going round and round and leading us nowhere.

What remains surprising, though, is how many otherwise bright, educated, loving people are taken in by the deceptions. Or more to the point, how people can just as cynically cling to false beliefs in order to protect their own selfish interests. And because the little world I inhabit is populated by Transitioners and other “switched on” beings, it’s a brutal reminder of how much work remains to be done.

Opponents to wind power cite dangers to bats, birds, noise, human health, intermittency and the storage problem. All of these arguments have been debunked time and time again. What’s really at the heart of opposition to on-shore wind, here and everywhere in Britain, is that wind turbines spoil the view.

I paid a visit to Harberton’s 13^th century Church House Inn on a cold, windless day that began with a slight dusting of snow. A local patron told me that he thought most people were against the turbines, but that there “was a lot of mis-information out there.” There’s a person going around claiming climate change is a hoax and another claiming wind turbines cause impotence. He said there were people who lived in the cleavage of hills, several hills away from the turbine project, who have no views but the butt of the next hill, who are now complaining about their views being spoiled. We both shook our heads.

“The View” and who it might belong to brings up all kinds of issues around privilege, class, bourgeois aspirations, and even notions of Englishness - in fact, even trying to unpack the idea is a privileged exercise. We don’t have the time and such beliefs cannot be argued into submission with facts, anyway. But opponents, though few in number, tend to be loud, so doing nothing is not an option.

The good people of TRESOC and their friends don’t think so, either. They are mounting a letter writing campaign to demonstrate to elected representatives that there is overwhelming support for wind power in our wider community. This kind of democracy in action could make the difference. It’s another kind of renewable energy we really need.

photos: Tresoc Community Wind Farm logo, Prince Philip - Creative Commones, English society-photographer w:Allan Warren, Wind Tour, courtesy TRESOC