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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

if you think windmills are ugly what do you think of pylons?

92 replies

12yearsinazkaban · 12/04/2022 09:11

Or solar panels?

We have ugly looking lampposts on every street. not as big but just as ugly. Big massive triangular towers that buzz in the rain? they are everywhere. some in people's back bloody gardens, not to mention the big boxed off electric areas that have the electric will kill you warning sign.
Cities are full of them, every other road has one so why no wind Mills?

OP posts:
Teaandbiscuits22 · 12/04/2022 10:30

I don't mind windmills. I don't like pylons I wouldn't want to be near one but I'd prefer either of them to the huge 5g tower they have erected at the top my street it's monstrous im less than 100 metres away from it!!

Oblomov22 · 12/04/2022 12:19

Turbines are fine. Windmills are beautiful. Pilons are fuck ugly. Why we haven't replaced them with wires underground by now is a mystery.

SusiePevensie · 12/04/2022 12:21

Wind farms are beautiful and give me hope. I wish we’d build far more.

etulosba · 12/04/2022 12:34

Why we haven't replaced them with wires underground by now is a mystery.

It isn’t much of a mystery. Underground cables with equivalent power transmission capacities are extremely expensive.

You might find this enlightening…

www.nationalgrid.com/sites/default/files/documents/39111-Undergrounding_high_voltage_electricity_transmission_lines_The_technical_issues_INT.pdf

SheWoreYellow · 12/04/2022 12:38

@Zazdar

Why do they paint them white rather than a more subdued colour that would blend into the background?
Aren’t they just bare metal?
Zazdar · 12/04/2022 15:20

Aren’t they just bare metal?

I doubt it. Most uncorroded metal is grey.

110APiccadilly · 12/04/2022 15:27

I find pylons very ugly but accept that it's not practical to bury all the cables. Oddly enough I grew up near a nuclear power plant (now decommissioned) and I've always quite liked how that looked! Like a rather surreal castle, from some angles.

Wind turbines move so maybe draw the eye to them more than pylons. I don't mind them, but I don't like them either and I do find the way you can't look in any direction without seeing them (where I live) a bit annoying.

Lemondrop2 · 12/04/2022 15:28

I thought that public opinion had moved on in the last twenty years, and people were now mostly pro anything that reduces our use of fossil fuels for energy and ‘meh’ about what they look like.

Apart from Grant Shapps who thinks he will gain votes by calling them an ‘eyesore’ 🤩.

junglejane66 · 12/04/2022 15:29

@Zazdar

Why do they paint them white rather than a more subdued colour that would blend into the background?
Its so it blends into the the sky, well on cloudy days. Some have the lower part of the tower painted different shades of green but it doesnt really work
GreenNewDealNow · 12/04/2022 15:29

I think windmills are stunningly beautiful compared to cars, car parks, new build houses and men in khaki shorts.

MojoMoon · 12/04/2022 15:31

Glass buildings are by far the biggest cause of accidental death of birds, not wind turbines.

www.dezeen.com/2022/03/09/glass-collisions-bird-deaths/

Then cats and road traffic.

Bird deaths can also be mitigated at wind turbines by painting one blade black

electrek.co/2020/08/21/wind-turbines-bird-friendly-black-blade/

Climate change caused by burning fossil fuels is also killing birds - so objecting to wind turbines and being happy with burning coal or gas in order to protect birds makes no sense.

I think turbines are quite elegant, almost ethereal in the mist

junglejane66 · 12/04/2022 15:31

@Zazdar

Aren’t they just bare metal?

I doubt it. Most uncorroded metal is grey.

Yes they are painted. Towers are metal as is the bed of the nacelle, but the nacelle is fibre glass. The blades are fibre glass as well
Thoosa · 12/04/2022 15:32

They’re all ugly. Ditto motorways. I’d love to travel back 100 years or so and see the UK and the world before them.

They’re all useful though, even if some are too ubiquitous or not well designed or well integrated. Green energy is most forgivable.

bewilderedwinner · 12/04/2022 15:35

I like wind turbines and windmills. No complaints here.

Zazdar · 12/04/2022 15:38

Its so it blends into the the sky, well on cloudy days.

They don’t though. They don’t blend in into anything except fog. If they wanted it to blend in with the sky, grey would be a better colour.

SScoobiedoo · 12/04/2022 15:44

Well there's no point having turbines without pylons - the pylons carry the power they produce so you get both.

I hate the turbines as they are taller than the hills they sit on so dramatic Scottish scenery now looks like pimples with machines all over them. But as they are not in most people's backyards they don't care.

moonbedazzled · 12/04/2022 15:45

Aw, I love windmills. I went to one on the Isle of Wight which is owned by English Heritage. I found it fascinating how they work. Can't believe all that goes on inside a little windmill.
Wind turbines are irritating. And pylons are a bit ugly but I'm quite fond of electricity so I'm willing to put up with them.

Frazzled2207 · 12/04/2022 15:47

i have no issue with windfarms or solar. Or pylons really but I much prefer the first two. However windfarms are noisy. Considered getting a turbine in the back garden but too noisy. We are however getting solar. I don't see it as an eyesore at all.

Frazzled2207 · 12/04/2022 15:50

About 20 years ago I drove from Poland to Germany. The first thing I saw once we crossed the border was an enormous windfarm - the autobahn went right through the middle. At the time I'd never seen anything like it before. Not dissing Poland at all which I love (and this was quite a long time ago) but it felt like we'd gone forward 50 years. Was an impressive, and awe-inspiring sight. In a good way.

AryaStarkWolf · 12/04/2022 15:50

Pylons are even uglier

junglejane66 · 12/04/2022 15:55

@Zazdar

Its so it blends into the the sky, well on cloudy days.

They don’t though. They don’t blend in into anything except fog. If they wanted it to blend in with the sky, grey would be a better colour.

Some are grey and are just as visible as white, but less attractive to insects

Not sure there is a colour to make them disappear

1dayatatime · 12/04/2022 16:00

@Elphame @Theimpossiblegirl

I was looking down from the top of Crooks Peak yesterday and they are so obtrusive. Old fashioned pylons would probably have blended better.

+++

Ironically National Grid specifically used a new pylon design for the Hinkley Power station connection in order not to spoil the view from Crooks Peak!

Ifailed · 12/04/2022 16:05

I’d love to travel back 100 years or so and see the UK and the world before them.

Like this?

if you think windmills are ugly what do you think of pylons?
Tillerman · 12/04/2022 16:07

I don’t mind either. Live close to some pylons, don’t really think much of them. Solar panels are ok too, honestly not arsed.

ILikeCrapTelly · 12/04/2022 16:08

I misread 'windmills' as 'windowsills' in your title and had no idea what you were talking about Grin