Essay by Eric Worrall
“… we’re being used as a dumping ground for our neighbours’ energy needs …”
Climate change: Y Bryn wind farm aids net zero aim – developer
By Garry Owen
BBC NewsA new onshore wind farm could help Wales move towards its net zero target by 2050, say developers.
But some local people called the Y Bryn plan between Port Talbot and Maesteg a “blight on the landscape”.
…
Campaigner Phil Morgan said: “My daughter is fifth generation here.
“It’s a healthy place, I spend a lot of time walking and foraging in this area and it would be a shame to see it basically clear felled and dug up for these follies, these white elephants.”
Rhodri Williams, who is part of the local residents’ action group, said the area was already making a contribution towards the net zero target.
“We have more than our fair share of wind farms around this area,” he said.
“They should be looking at offshore because that’s where the greatest potential is and offshore turbine can produce twice as much energy as an onshore turbine.
“It’s a quick fix here and we’re being used as a dumping ground for our neighbours’ energy needs.”
Another resident, Delyth Keating, said she was concerned that the turbines would have an impact on a growing tourism industry.
“We’re a world mountain bike area – they come from far and wide,” she said.
“People actually travel here and stay in the local area. If we haven’t got access to the mountain, which we will be denied access to during building, people are just going to stop coming here and find somewhere else to go, so local business will lose out.”
…
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-65902606
Wales has some of the most scenic countryside in Britain, and makes significant income from tourists visiting to walk their many trails and mountains. And my personal experience, the Welsh feel a strong connection to their countryside, a tradition stretching back to before the Roman Empire. The hills, mountains and streams of Wales are part of the nation’s soul.
Blighting the countryside with large mechanical monstrosities probably won’t help attract more visitors, nor will it bring peace to the troubled hearts of the Welsh people.
Wales used to have two nuclear reactors, which between them used to produce significant amounts of zero carbon electricity from a much smaller footprint than all the wind farms the government wants to build. But both reactors were shut down, and have not been replaced.
“Wales has some of the most scenic countryside in Britain”
Yes, it does. But this does not include Port Talbot, which is the site of a massive Tata steel mill. Here is the Wiki picture:
Points arising, see attached.
The steelworks (outlined in black) is not = Port Talbot (outlined in red dots)
Yes they are adjacent but that’s it.
Compared the windfarm, in 2 parts outlined in Pink, the steelworks is not massive
The steelworks is on the seaside where no-one can see it else from within the place itself or from offshore where nobody lives
The windfarm is atop the hills where everybody can see it for dozens of miles around where everybody does live
edit to add the official link..
I didn’t see any steelworks there – apart from the windmills themselves
https://www.ybryn-windfarm.cymru/
I see a highly photoshopped dreamland
If they do build it, what will happen is also what has happened to Loch Ness, its monster, the little fishes and its watershed.
The deveolpers/builders will drain that land (peat, mosses and bogs) so as to gain access.
This will drain the local streams and rivers, kill the fishes, raise the temperatures, cause the trees to burn (also the grasses put there instead) rise the sea-levels and really really actually will, because Water Controls Climate, really will Change the Climate
nice – a self-fulfilling utter total disaster
I didn’t say what happened to Nessie..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-65855228
They’re blaming Climate Change there.
No. The rivers have dried up because their water source was the seeping/leakage and slow/constant drip drip dribble coming out of 10’s thousands acres of bog, peatland and ‘Heather Moorland’
In part commercial forestry removes/stops that slow release of water which keeps rivers/streams flowing all year round and even through quite serious ‘drought’
(Wetland drainage is what caused the Acid Rain scare in Scandinavia – but the Scandavians kept quiet about it – and sold us the timber.
Secretly they loved the acid rain – it made their trees grow like fug)
Windfarms. They need even heavier machines than foresters use, hence drier terrain BUT even worse, they cut huge great holes in whatever forest is there.
So water pisses out of the place from the ditches they cut/dig but also evaporates away in the wind – which is why they put a windfarm there, exactly because it is = A Windy Place
Ain’t they sweet…
Gotta wonder- if they ventured a little further out with just their heads and backs showing above water, they could be mistaken for Nessie itself..
OMG – are those actually Nessie’s Babies?
I’d not be surprised, everything in this world is now wrong, even more so if the BBC has had hands on it.
“The steelworks is on the seaside where no-one can see it else from within the place itself”
The steel works and associated industries are very visible across the bay from much of Swansea.
“I didn’t see any steelworks there”
No, the picture is taken looking away from the sea and towards the coal mines (which are the reason for the heavy industry in Port Talbot).
Nick – there haven’t been any coal mines near Port Talbot for the past 25 years…
Coal is a good start to ALL manufacturing industry..
In fact, to economic progress in any form !
That’s beneath you Nick.
You say that as if he hasn’t already proven that nothing is beneath him.
If there was a place lower than the Marianas Trench, they’d have to call it Nitpick Nick Trench.
Those hills creeping into the left-hand side of the Wiki photo and the wild country behind them are where they want to put the wind farm. If you turned 90 degrees left from that viewpoint you’d be able to see them.
Don’t worry Nick. Thanks to adherents of the climate change cult there’s a good chance that it’ll become uneconomic to produce steel in the UK and production will be shifted to India or China. I’m sure you’ll appreciate the improved view once the steelworks is cleared and returned to nature.
Port Talbot has been there for hundreds of years. The place has provided shelter and employment for innumerable people for all that time. The steelworks is part of a thriving community and brings much welcome investment.
In that respect, it’s a very beautiful place, unlike the concentration camps the Australian government established for ‘unvaccinated’ people during the covid nonsense.
Wind turbines offer the square root of nothing. They are undoubtedly manufactured overseas (China?), transported to Wales on diesel burning ships, and employ construction crews for a very short period.
Thereafter it’s maintenance which doesn’t employ many people at all. We know this because of the hundreds of thousands of ‘green’ jobs promised to Scotland over the years, the number actually functioning are around 2,000.
The green myth is about to get steamrollered by rapidly changing world events.
“The steelworks is part of a thriving community and brings much welcome investment.”
Indeed so. But Eric presents it as a scenic countryside where
“Rural Welsh Rebel Against the Wind Farm Blight”
“
But Eric presents it as a scenic countryside
Nick, you’re not even Nickpicking here, you’re flat out lying.
Please show me where in the article above that Eric presented the steelworks as a scenic countryside.
“Wales has some of the most scenic countryside in Britain”
Are you claiming that the steelworks is all of Wales? Are you claiming that Wales does not have scenic countryside?
What, exactly, is it that you are taking exception to here, that was actually stated?
Talk about a strawman…
The wind farm that Eric is talking about, Y Bryn, is a bit over a mile from the steelworks.
Exact words, Nick. Quote them for me please.
Wrong, you are lying yet again.
Eric is talking about the countryside AROUND Port Talbot.
You know that, yet you still intentionally try the misdirection as a form of petty distraction.
Don’t worry Nick. The steelworks will soon close because of the monstrous costs of the UK’s disastrous renewable energy policy. We can then all import our steel from China and the workers at Port Talbot can start claiming unemployment benefit.
On another note the beaches at Kenfig National Nature Reserve just a few hundred yards from the steelworks are absolutely stunning.
So? There’s A PLACE that isn’t scenic countryside. How does that invalidate the statement?
Ever been there, Nick? My son lived in Port Albert (that’s how the local pronounce it, ofnadwy). The beach is very clean. Walked along it many a time. Just noticed I can see his old house in that picture. Air was pretty clean to
Yes. I lived in Swansea for a year.
So you lived in Swansea and called out Port Albert as not pretty. A483 from Builth Wells to Newtown is spectacular. The Pembrokeshire coast is spectacular – my wife’s family is from Solva. Snowdonia is spectacular. The Berwyn’s where I recently watched sheepdog trials are spectacular. Probably the most spectacular sporting venue I’ve been to outside the Pyrenees and Alps. Up in the valleys past Maesteg it’s spectacular. Port Talbot beach is lovely.
Yes, I got around to all those places, and I agree. But the fact is that the rural paradise (says Eric) where Y Bryn is being built is very close to a massive steel mill in a region traditionally of heavy industry.
The FACT is, that it is rural countryside close to the town that is being destroyed.
You know that, yet you still keep up the petty distraction attempts.!
Ok Nick, let’s put the wind turbine there.
Like we should in Sydney and Melbourne…
… put them in the electorates that vote Green and Teal and Labour.
And of course, Canberra has plenty of room for them.
And here it is in context, Nick:
From North Devon you can look across the Bristol Channel and see the Welsh coast, with the hills behind blighted by dozens of useless wind farms.
Phillip I live across a river from a northern Ontario wind farm. On a clear day you can see dozens of them. Often many not turning. Monday a freighter was heading towards Canada loaded with three (3) wind mill blades.
they blight the countryside.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Township_Wind_Farm
I blame my son, see my other comment
You have clearly not seen what they did with Cymystwyth!
After the coal mines with their winding engines, coal heaps and Aberfan disasters + north wales slate mines came the caravan parks then the wind farms.
100 yrs ago or so, lots of people died in the mines and silicosis became widespread all over Wales.
21st century has better style.
The wind farms just kill people who can’t afford heating with the cold, –
rather than the 20th cent valleys people who lit the coal in their homes and made the place stink of smoke. (probably enhancing cancer with the tar and soot).
Wales has always survived from one crisis to another, mostly in poverty.
The best times are behind it, the industry has all gone, & the EU subisdised a lot of its loss making farming.
What future “cymru am byth”?
The prime objectives of a wind farm are.
Other than that and maybe some low noise nuisance, I can’t think what other use a wind farm has. Oh, did I forget to mention the destruction of actual food farming activity?
Agree – but maybe points 5 and 6 should be 1 and 2?
You could be right Dave, though the order of the crimes on the charge sheet will not alter the sentence ultimately imposed on those guilty of the crimes listed…..
There may be one other: To deflect criticism from something else you do people don’t like.
In looking into northern Ontario wind farms I see several are owned by Enbridge which also owns pipelines. One of which is Line 5 under the Straits of Mackinac.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wind_farms_in_Canada
Your point being?
Enbridge has plans to put line 5 into a hard-rock tunnel under the Straits of Mackinaw to avoid the risk of potential spills (which haven’t happened in 70 years of continuous operation, but is the nominal reason for the anti-line 5 campaign). But Gretchen doesn’t like that either, which shows that her real objective is to close the pipeline down entirely. If she succeeds, there will of course be more oil-by-rail, which as we all know, never causes spills, and never kills people.
Pipeline company owning windmills? It’s called hedging your bets. After the Keystone XL debacle, can you blame them?
I stated my point very well. People often don’t like pipelines so owners of pipelines do things people like to deflect.
I live up here so I am well aware of what is being proposed. I was on Enbridge’s side whole heartedly until they started running commercials talking about lessening carbon. They seem to be sucking up not hedging bets.
I have posted here about Line 5 before and pointed out he only oil spilled was mineral oil from a telephone cable.
So, with enough wind farms, the authorities’ work of destroying farming will be done for them?
Don’t forget the carnage the off shore ones are forcing on sea life
Wales has Portmeirion – aka The Village. Well worth a visit.
The country is a complete basket case, but they do know their pronouns
I imagine you are referring to the basket case of Drakeford, First Minister.
“Do not go quietly into the good night…….Rage, rage at the dying of the light”
Dylan Thomas.
They haven’t changed much
Come home to a real fire….as the old coal board advert went
The sons of Owain Glyn Dŵr took it literally
Drakeford has solved that burning second home issue. He has tripled the community charge for those owning second homes, (mostly English owners). It is crippling the housing market in tourist areas and making people that rely on tourism redundant. True socialist policies in play.
They [Welsh Labour etc] still try to blame the English for their woes…
“”Rather than take responsibility for Labour’s poor running of the NHS, Mark Drakeford looked to pass the blame on to the UK government, despite the fact that health in Wales has been under Labour control for 25 years””
https://news.sky.com/story/wales-first-minister-mark-drakeford-loses-temper-with-tories-as-he-accuses-them-of-making-mess-of-uks-budget-and-reputation-12723887
It’s cos of all the mutations – I mean the language obviously
The Welsh Government has designated large swathes of the country as “Pre-assessed areas for wind energy” i.e. areas with a presumption in favour of large-scale wind energy development. As wind farms are designated as Developments of National Significance they can bypass local planning and are decided directly by Welsh ministers (the same ones who decided that they are pre-assessed areas….). And it’s not only the windfarms. They have to be connected to the national grid. In the case of the proposed Nant Mithil wind farm in Powys this involves a 60 mile run of 27m high pylons snaking through the Welsh countryside, including the Towy valley. Once that line is in place, other wind farms can be connected to it. Unsurprisingly, the company proposing this is owned by foreign investors so there will be little return for the Welsh. Wales already produces twice as much electricity as it consumes so we don’t need more wind farms. Unfortunately, the Welsh government will do anything to achieve its net zero dream.
A quick look at https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/ shows that wind is producing 0.82GW which is 2.56% of the current UK load.
At this rate they will need 40 times more windmill than we currently have!!
Down to 0.75GW now so that is just 2% of load so 50 times more windmills needed.
The renewables manufacturers are rubbing their hands with glee. All that extra business they will transact due to being completely unreliable energy providers.
The only good news is that there are now so many unreliable projects in the UK pipeline that National Grid says it will take 10 to 15 years to connect them to the grid and it is likely that many will actually not get built. – especially as the torrent of new schemes shows no sign of abating (gimme the subsidies!)
From the article: “Wales used to have two nuclear reactors, which between them used to produce significant amounts of zero carbon electricity from a much smaller footprint than all the wind farms the government wants to build. But both reactors were shut down, and have not been replaced.”
NutZero.
The two plants were Trawsfyndd in North Wales and Wylfa in Anglesey. Both were Magnox reactors. Trawsfyndd began operation in 1965 and shut in 1991. Wylfa began operation in 1971 and closed in 2015.
There were ongoing plans to replace Wylfa but in 2021 Hitachi withdrew from the £20 billion project and it is dead in the water.
My son used to live in Port Talbot and worked for a renewables company based between Port Talbot and Bridgend. I blame him. “I’m just taking their money, Dad” was always his response.
He now works for Brecon Council as a planning officer. The Planning Committee recently rejected a small schools visitor hut in the Brecon Beacons National Park as the concrete base wasn’t “environmentally friendly” my son did mutter at the meeting, “what about the windmill bases which you all wave through?”
I have a friend who’s a sheep farmer above Pencoed/Brynna and he has dozens all around his farm. I find the noise unbearable when I visit, he doesn’t hear it anymore. He does have a lot to say about rewilding and banning meat though. (all our dogs were bought from him-it’s a large revenue stream for him and as they are working Border Collies from champion trialling stock, worth a fair bit).
For our American cousins, the Brecon Beacons National Park park authorities have recently changed the name of the park as the word “beacon”, apparently, isn’t environmentally friendly!
I don’t see how these bird killers are green. After they develop material fatigue they’re replaced and put in landfills.
Wishing the rebels gods speed and success – windmills were fine 200 years ago to grind wheat