The world's largest wind farm, which has been planned for the North Sea off the coast of Kent, UK, for some time has now finally been officially approved. However, the project, which is being planned by Eon and Shell energy companies, is being threatened by an increase and projected costs, and possible regulatory problems with transmitting the power.
A substation and the power cables necessary to transport the power to population centers are being fought by locals. At the same time, the projected cost of the project has increased from £1.5bn to £2bn.
Locals are are not, so it is claimed, interested in having the 340 turbine project in their back yard, but the UK needs to focus on these massive renewable projects in order to meet it's Kyoto targets. Without them, it simply won't happen.
The amazing thing, so to speak, is that some people always manage to get public opposition stirred against such projects and those that do the stirring are, invariably, members from organizations that are, supposedly, concerned with the environment and are supposed to be all for alternative, renewable energy, such as Greenpeace of Friends of the Earth. They are all for it, it would seem, when it is in other countries but as soon as it is here and in one or the other's backyard then they hit out against it. We cannot, I am afraid to say, have it both ways.
This is the same when it comes to waste incineration projects that will generate electric power while burning rubbish. Again and again the likes of Friends of the Earth and such will stand against this saying that we must recycle instead of incinerating. Yes, that is true. We must recycle what we can recycle but there will always be some left that cannot be recycled and this will either have to go into holes in the ground, of which we are running out of or indeed have run out of, or it must be burned. This is being done in other countries, such as Germany, Sweden, etc. and – strangely enough – there seem to be no problems there and no protests, in the main, against such projects. However, as soon as they appear on the horizon anywhere in the UK those people are there campaigning against those projects instead of making some real positive input. A little less negative attitude and some more positive stances and suggestions would be nice – I am not holding my breath, however, waiting for such moves.
© M V Smith, October 2007
The world's largest Wind Farm – to-date – finally approved
