The other week, Jen, Ben and I stayed a night in Great Yarmouth. It’s close to my brother and sister in law, and given that we live as far as is mathematically possible from the sea in England, it was good to enjoy some fresh sea air before heading down the perilously slow A47 back to the Midlands.
Since my last visit to the golden sands surrounding the mouth of the Yar, they have constructed an offshore wind warm at Scroby Sands, very visible from the Yarmouth beaches.
A little bit of googling tells me that this is a 60MW plant, using 30 2MW wind turbines. All good, low impact energy generation. Plus, in my opinion, they look great.
I know that there is plenty of objection to wind farms as polluting the environment with big, ugly blades, lots of noise close-up, and the considerable hazard to birds who don’t get out of the way (to which I say “survival of the fittest, lads”), however when you weigh up the effect on the ambience compared to the increasing likelihood of getting skin cancer and tropical storms in Market Harborough then it may well be a price worth paying.
Personally I find windfarms very pleasing, even hypnotic to look at - the long slowly rotating blades have caused me to nearly veer on to the hard shoulder a couple of times. I did look in to getting one at home (around £1000, plus there are local grants available) however so far I’ve not gone for it due to concerns over annoying my neighbours and the fact that the windows need replacing first.
