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Ill effects of wind farms
Sunday, January 25, 2009 By Stephen Price
For many decades, green issues were viewed as the preserve of cranks. Even now, when they have penetrated mainstream awareness, they still come with misconceptions attached. Take wind farms, for example. The prevailing wisdom says that we need to build as many wind farms as possible, to stop burning carbon fuels and save the planet. So, wind farms are inherently good.

But this is simply not true. Wind farms are only good if they are properly sited, and if their carbon cost is substantially lower than their carbon saving. Because they are relatively cheap to build and Ireland is windy, wind farms are seen as the ideal solution for our energy problems. Perception has come full circle; nowadays, wind farm opponents are depicted as cranks, selfish Nimbys who are hindering the greater good of all.

This perception ignores many realities. Such as, not all wind farm opponents are retrogressive, and that many belong to the green movement. Or that not all wind farm developers are ideologically motivated eco-businessmen; some are big corporations, with heavy interests in oil, coal and nuclear. And there’s every shade of objector and developer in between. Finally, not all wind farms are good for the environment. In fact, some Irish ones have been quite bad for it.

In October 2003, an extensive wind farm construction site at Derrybrien in Co Galway caused an enormous bogslide - 450,000 cubic metres of peat came loose and one result was 50,000 dead fish in the Abhainn Da Loilioch river and Lough Cutra. The European Court of Justice ruled against Ireland in the matter, saying that a proper environmental impact assessment (EIA) had not been completed.

The jury is still out on last August’s bogslide near Castleisland in Co Kerry. Twenty five acres of peat, 50 metres wide and five metres deep, travelled across four kilometres, cutting off properties and killing fish in the river Feale catchment. Some blame heavy rains, others say that a road being built across the bog to construct a wind farm destabilised it, triggering the slide. Another landslide near Lough Allen in September is also being blamed by some locals on a road being constructed to a wind farm project at Garvagh Glebe North.

Depending on its thickness, a bog can slide on a slope of two degrees. Even a half-metre blanket of peat, if destabilised, will slide on a slope of 15 degrees. A combination of heavy rain and construction activity can readily destabilise a bog and, as has been seen repeatedly, the consequences are dreadful.

Many environmental groups are now calling for a total moratorium on wind farms being constructed on peatlands. The relevant minister, John Gormley, has yet to rule on the issue.

However messy the landslides, there is another very good reason why bogs should remain untouched. Typically, a virgin cubic metre of bog will contain a tonne of water and 55 kilos of solid organic carbon. When that cubic metre is drained and dries out, it will release 200 kilos of CO2 gas.

This figure is fully supported by scientific research and is used as a benchmark by bodies such as the Scottish government when assessing the impact of wind farms. In Ireland, if a traditional farmer drains a bog, he has to justify the carbon release through an EIA. Bizarrely, wind farmers are not required to do the same thing. If a deep bog is drained for access and construction, a wind farm can potentially generate more CO2 than it saves.

Just north of the Burren National Park, the inhabitants around Loughan North in Tulla are opposing a wind farm planned by SWS Energy of Bandon in Co Cork. The proposed site is on top of a boggy hill overlooking lakes, homes and much of the surrounding landscape. Joseph Wheatley, one of the objectors, points out that the regulations governing wind farm construction and ancillary roads need to be severely tightened, and I would be inclined to agree with him.

A wind farm is an industrial installation, and we should not be wrecking what remains of our beautiful landscape with ugly white masts and whirring blades. Micro-projects on brownfield sites are fine, as are large arrays far out to sea; anything else should be treated with scepticism as a matter of policy. And if a wind farm interferes with a bog, then it should simply not get built, for it is either partly or wholly defeating its own purpose.

Anyone who wishes to object to the Loughan North proposal can do so online at www.noeastclarewindfarm.net until January 30. Clare County Council disallowed a previous proposal for the site. Should the matter go to An Bord Pleanála? Hopefully the enormous value of Irish bogs, as carbon capture and storage mechanisms, will be taken into account.

& Although a radical overhaul of Ireland’s public transport network is long overdue, the knee-jerk reduction of workers and vehicles at Dublin Bus will result in greater inefficiency. Dublin needs more buses and fewer cars, not vice versa. Yet Dublin Bus is set to cut 290 jobs and 120 buses – a whopping 10 per cent of the fleet. Bus Eireann, not to be outdone, has followed suit with cuts of 320 jobs and 150 vehicles. So costs will be reduced at both companies, but so will services. Some parts of Ireland don’t even have a bus service; by the end of the year, more areas will join that unfortunate club.

CIE’s semi-state, semi-commercial model simply does not work properly. It assumes too much political autonomy without being fully exposed to real-world commercial exigencies.

The model allows what should be public service bodies to put artificial targets and interests beyond the needs of the very public they are meant to serve.

& The next in the series of climate change lectures organised by the UCD Earth Systems Institute takes place in Dublin’s Royal College of Physicians on January 30 at 12.30pm. It will be delivered by Dr Lisa Ryan of the UCD School of Geography, and will examine how to make road transport sustainable. To register, visit www.ucd.ie/earth/rsvp. I wonder if she’ll tackle Dublin Bus.

& When Willem Alexander – the Prince of Orange and heir to the Dutch throne – spoke last week at the Abu Dhabi World Future Energy conference of ‘peak wood’, he seemed to introduce a neologism into environmental vocabulary. This has nothing to do with princely pursuits of the flesh, rather the theory that the Roman Empire collapsed because it cut down all the forests within its control and ran out of fuel.

There are clear parallels between it and the concept of peak oil today. I previously thought that the Romans declined because they partied too hard, but perhaps even in that there is a distinct parallel with modern times.

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