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Original poster

No Newsnight, I really DO want a wind turbine in my back yard

44 replies

VulpusinaWilfsuit · 29/07/2009 22:43

FGS. Fecking NIMBY nonsense.

I would happily have on in my garden. Especially if it provided me with free electricity.

France has the right idea. The govt just has to TELL people to put em up. And get over it. Wot Ed Miliband said: the bigger threat is climate change.

I can't bear all this conservative nonsense about protecting some Victorian notion of the British countryside as if it weren't all shaped by human cultures and capitalism anyway.

Bah.

OP posts:
Original poster
VulpusinaWilfsuit · 29/07/2009 23:09

Oh. Just me then.

OP posts:
ForExample · 29/07/2009 23:11

Not not just you. But my dh seems to have put bloody QI on again.

swineofthetimes · 29/07/2009 23:15

I'd have one too. Far rather that than be flooded or fried thank you.

LynetteScavo · 29/07/2009 23:15

I love wind trubines - I think they are beautiful.

ingles2 · 29/07/2009 23:15

I'd love one Wilf... great big garden, really windy, massive elecy bills. Can't afford to install one though even with their crappy grants

mollyroger · 29/07/2009 23:15

wathc this space -there will be an alternative which even the NIMBYs can't object to....

janeite · 29/07/2009 23:16

I think they are lovely - but my garden is hardly big enough for a gnome, let alone a wind turbine.

JodieO · 29/07/2009 23:17

Aren't they extremely inefficient?

mollyroger · 29/07/2009 23:19

our friend has created an alternative which any building can have, even in conservation area.

And you will make your money back in 2 years.
(AND funding will be available to help you get one in the first place)
The team have been working on it for two years and soon I will be able to tell you more...but not yet!

NoReturnsPlease · 29/07/2009 23:23

They are bloody noisy though

A factory has one behind my house and I had to chane DS's room

frAKKINPannikin · 29/07/2009 23:25

Really? The one on DP's family estate is eerily quiet. Unless British ones are vv noisy.

UniS · 31/07/2009 12:43

I think they are rather beautiful too. very elegant (the big ones at any rate). NO idea what they sound like tho.

bronze · 31/07/2009 12:45

I'm another who wouldn't mind.
Had a load of nimbys come round with a petition about some the other day. I erm didn't impress them

AnnieLobeseder · 31/07/2009 12:47

Wots a nimby? [ignorant emoticon]

I love wind turbines and would definitely get one if they weren't so frikkin' expensive.

I dream of moving into an eco-house with solar panels and wind turbines and hay for insulation etc etc.....

bronze · 31/07/2009 12:48

Not In My Back Yard

PortAndLemon · 31/07/2009 12:53

Apparently they tend to kill bats (something to do with changing pockets of air pressure) which has put me off them slightly (wouldn't have minded one before that). Supposedly reviews are being done to make them more bat-friendly, though.

geordieminx · 31/07/2009 12:53

Not In My Back Yard

I have worked in telecoms for years, and had the same issue with people complaining that the coverage is crap but do9nt want a mst within 20 miles cos "they give you cancer"

I would love one in my backyard - ds (2) is obsessed with them - there are 3 about 10 miles away from us - if he is a good boy I take him down to see them, we can park right next to them - he loves it!

They arent a soloution to energy crisis though - I forget the figure but I think its something like 20 wind turbines are required to be turning 24 hours a day to provide enough electricity for 1 home.

paranoidmother · 31/07/2009 13:01

I want a wind turbine. I looked into it and you have to find out if you have enough wind coming through your garden. So I spoke to the people who measure it about a mile away and they said no, so you wouldn't get one. Apparantly if I measure the wind it doesn't count either. All I wanted was free electricity for us and the house next door. The school up the road has one and it provides 90% of their electricity.

TheChilliMooseISNOTFOREATING · 31/07/2009 13:16

I would like a wind turbine. Using nature and saving cash: what could be better?

Callisto · 31/07/2009 14:27

I wouldn't object either, but unfortunately wind turbines are not the answer as they are an unreliable source of electricity and not terribly cost effective. They kill birds too - in the US it has been found that turbines on migratory routes have a very detrimental effect on bird numbers. Think nimby's are twats though - I wouldn't object to a nuclear power station in my back yard (as long as the French or Yanks build it) if it means that the lights don't go out in a few years time.

LionstarBigPants · 31/07/2009 14:35

I'm a bit ambivalent on the really big wind-farm types. What I don't get though is why all those flat rooftops in cities aren't covered in small ones - its not space that is being used now, and they would hardly be destroying any areas of natural beauty, or disturb the peace! A city covered in turbines would surely generate quite a bit?

Reallytired · 07/08/2009 21:51

I don't want a wind turbine in my back garden. I don't think it would generate enough electricity to justify itself.

However I would love to have solar panels on my roof.

One of my bug bares about energy microgeneration is that people think they are being terribly green doing microgeneration, but then they don't do simple things like turning off lights, PCs, closing the door or using the tumble dyer unnecessarily, pathtetically short car journeys. The school I work at wants to get solar panels, but then they don't recycle cardboard. Its a bit laughable.

frostyfingers · 10/08/2009 10:28

We have objected to wind turbines in our area for several reasons, 1) the damage that is done to the landscape whilst they put them up - a new access track has to be built up a mountain and will remain 2) they will only provice a small amount of electricity, none of which will directly benefit the immediate locality 3) they're damn ugly. 4) I also have a large suspicion that it's all to do with money - the local landowner on whose land they may be sited will make huge amounts, the company building them are trying to bribe the local community by offering £20,000 over 5 years to an enormous area. Yes I know it's not for charity, but I don't think the over riding reasons are for the environment.....

If it could be done so that smaller turbines directly benefited the area in which they are sited (ie the local town/village) then I think less people would object. My feeling is that the people affected by the presence of them, do not feel as though they are getting anything back for putting up with what many consider an eyesore. Currently they seem to be noisy, inefficient, ugly and not particularly beneficial to the local area.

If I felt we were directly getting some of the electricty then I'd change my mind - yes, selfish I know, but I think if they started out selling the positive side to the locals they might get further.

I agree with Reallytired too about doing the small stuff yourself.

gizmo · 10/08/2009 16:24

Sorry to say that at micro (ie household or

gizmo · 10/08/2009 16:26

Oh and if I lived somewhere that was sensibly windy and someone wanted to stick some turbines up, be very happy to - and appear on Newsnight with a big grin!