With good timing, as sweltering Europe ponders an overheating world, the first of 30 turbines was this week erected at Britain's first major offshore wind farm. North Hoyle is four miles out to sea off the north Wales coast, inaudible and virtually invisible. Britain has the best wind potential in Europe and the government's new energy policy at last promises no more nuclear power and a lot more wind and other renewables.
But don't imagine the nuclear industry just rolled over and died. The fight is on. Despite the staggering cost of bailing out British Energy with £610m now and £3bn to come in taxpayer liabilities, the nuclear industry is doing all it can to halt the progress of wind power.
When Patricia Hewitt announced the end of the nuclear era and the beginning of a better energy policy, there was a clear caveat. Her promise is for 10% renewable energy by 2010 and an aim to reach 20% by 2020. But the caveat is that wind power has to prove itself sufficiently cost-effective and reliable within the first five years when the nuclear option will be reviewed in the light of wind's success or failure.
Three major offshore wind regions were announced, producing the same electricity as six new nuclear power stations. Can they be got up and running quickly and easily, to prove that wind is indeed the answer?
The one great obstacle that could cause fatal delay and disruption is local objections. The history of wind farms has been that 16 out 18 planning applications for land wind farms in Wales failed between 1993 and 1998, due to local objections.
A harmless-sounding group called Country Guardian has been backing many of the small, but effective, local action groups opposing planning requests for wind farms. It describes itself as the national campaign to oppose wind turbines. Its cleverly casuistic website casts scathing doubt on global warming and rubbishes every aspect of wind power's viability.
Country Guardian's vice-president is Sir Bernard Ingham, former Thatcher press spokesman, former consultant to British Nuclear Fuels and current secretary of Supporters of Nuclear Energy (Sone). He has boasted that he personally is responsible for stopping 66% of wind farm planning applications. Now the battle is on at the next proposed wind farm location - Porthcawl in Swansea Bay, where Country Guardian backs the local opposition, SOSPorthcawl.
The proposed wind farm, three miles out to sea, would produce enough energy to power Swansea. The group has produced grossly distorted pictures of how the wind farm might look, alarming the town and generating 3,000 letters of objection. It claims tourism will be damaged, that the waves for surfers will be affected, the noise deafening and the sight an eyesore - none of which is true. (Only distant masts on the horizon will be visible: as for noise, the blaring of Britney Spears from the fairground is rather more damaging than far-away silent windmills). SOSPorthcawl supports wind in principle, but just not on its coast.
The Nimbys will be challenged over this bank holiday weekend when Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth turn out in force in Porthcawl to mobilise local people to speak up for wind power and to persuade local businesses that offshore wind farms have proved a tourist attraction, not a deterrent, elsewhere. Would they rather a nuclear power station? Or would they rather wait until Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets melt completely, raising sea levels by some six metres, wiping out Porthcawl altogether? How people view turbines on their far horizon may depend partly on how well they appreciate the good being done.
It is crucial for the future of offshore wind farms that planning permission passes quickly and smoothly here. It goes first to a public inquiry and then to the Welsh assembly environment and planning committee but the local politician (a Lib Dem AM), is backing SOSPorthcawl despite party policy that strongly supports wind power. That's always the bind - localism against the national interest. If the Welsh assembly turns it down and this pattern is repeated elsewhere, it will dampen government enthusiasm for wind power.
In North Hoyle, whose first turbine rose up this week, there was strong local support for the wind farm, as Greenpeace moved in early. There all power generated will flow into Juice, a purely green electricity supply, provided by npower, in partnership with Greenpeace. There are other green power suppliers, but only Juice is directly linked to offshore wind. North Hoyle will supply enough for 50,000 homes, so once it has 50,000 subscribers, Juice will start another offshore site and so on.
So anyone who wants wind power to win out over nuclear power can help make it happen by switching to Juice. (Call 0800 316 2610 or go to www.SwitchtoJuice.com) for instant connection. It does the changeover from your present supplier and it costs the same. It is not more expensive.) The market for green power is still shockingly small - with just 56,000 green subscribers to various schemes. With Juice, every new subscriber will add to the demand for green energy.
Unusually Greenpeace has endorsed a commercial enterprise - answering critics who accuse it of perpetual, knee-jerk negativity. It is counterintuitive to find green campaigners lobbying in favour of a large development (they are not being paid or taking any profits). They and Friends of the Earth are also fighting against the conservative-minded Council for the Protection of Rural England, who oppose wind farms as an eyesore.
For now, the main opponent is pro-nuclear Country Guardian, whose anti-windfarm website (www.countryguardian.net) wins the breathtaking hypocrisy award: "It is unacceptable that our last great landscapes should be heavily industrialised in a futile political gesture.
Wilderness is a non-renewable resource crucial to the sanity of a pressurised and overcrowded world. It must not be sacrificed for a derisory and largely illusory contribution to clean energy supply when there are far more effective and cost effective strategies." Readers may consider last week's spectacle of over-heated French nuclear power stations discharging nuclear hot water straight into rivers for fear of meltdown in the heat rather more environmentally alarming than windmills three miles out at sea.
Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are often accused of raising panics about new technologies. It's easy to stir people up against big government, big corporations, big energy. But now they find themselves in a knock-down, drag-out fight with just the kind of local action groups that used to be their mainstay. They have had to make hard choices between minor damage to countryside views and saving the planet. This weekend, they will be appealing to Porthcawl citizens to make the same choice. Anyone else who supports wind power should sign up for Juice right now.
But don't imagine the nuclear industry just rolled over and died. The fight is on. Despite the staggering cost of bailing out British Energy with £610m now and £3bn to come in taxpayer liabilities, the nuclear industry is doing all it can to halt the progress of wind power.
When Patricia Hewitt announced the end of the nuclear era and the beginning of a better energy policy, there was a clear caveat. Her promise is for 10% renewable energy by 2010 and an aim to reach 20% by 2020. But the caveat is that wind power has to prove itself sufficiently cost-effective and reliable within the first five years when the nuclear option will be reviewed in the light of wind's success or failure.
Three major offshore wind regions were announced, producing the same electricity as six new nuclear power stations. Can they be got up and running quickly and easily, to prove that wind is indeed the answer?
The one great obstacle that could cause fatal delay and disruption is local objections. The history of wind farms has been that 16 out 18 planning applications for land wind farms in Wales failed between 1993 and 1998, due to local objections.
A harmless-sounding group called Country Guardian has been backing many of the small, but effective, local action groups opposing planning requests for wind farms. It describes itself as the national campaign to oppose wind turbines. Its cleverly casuistic website casts scathing doubt on global warming and rubbishes every aspect of wind power's viability.
Country Guardian's vice-president is Sir Bernard Ingham, former Thatcher press spokesman, former consultant to British Nuclear Fuels and current secretary of Supporters of Nuclear Energy (Sone). He has boasted that he personally is responsible for stopping 66% of wind farm planning applications. Now the battle is on at the next proposed wind farm location - Porthcawl in Swansea Bay, where Country Guardian backs the local opposition, SOSPorthcawl.
The proposed wind farm, three miles out to sea, would produce enough energy to power Swansea. The group has produced grossly distorted pictures of how the wind farm might look, alarming the town and generating 3,000 letters of objection. It claims tourism will be damaged, that the waves for surfers will be affected, the noise deafening and the sight an eyesore - none of which is true. (Only distant masts on the horizon will be visible: as for noise, the blaring of Britney Spears from the fairground is rather more damaging than far-away silent windmills). SOSPorthcawl supports wind in principle, but just not on its coast.
The Nimbys will be challenged over this bank holiday weekend when Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth turn out in force in Porthcawl to mobilise local people to speak up for wind power and to persuade local businesses that offshore wind farms have proved a tourist attraction, not a deterrent, elsewhere. Would they rather a nuclear power station? Or would they rather wait until Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets melt completely, raising sea levels by some six metres, wiping out Porthcawl altogether? How people view turbines on their far horizon may depend partly on how well they appreciate the good being done.
It is crucial for the future of offshore wind farms that planning permission passes quickly and smoothly here. It goes first to a public inquiry and then to the Welsh assembly environment and planning committee but the local politician (a Lib Dem AM), is backing SOSPorthcawl despite party policy that strongly supports wind power. That's always the bind - localism against the national interest. If the Welsh assembly turns it down and this pattern is repeated elsewhere, it will dampen government enthusiasm for wind power.
In North Hoyle, whose first turbine rose up this week, there was strong local support for the wind farm, as Greenpeace moved in early. There all power generated will flow into Juice, a purely green electricity supply, provided by npower, in partnership with Greenpeace. There are other green power suppliers, but only Juice is directly linked to offshore wind. North Hoyle will supply enough for 50,000 homes, so once it has 50,000 subscribers, Juice will start another offshore site and so on.
So anyone who wants wind power to win out over nuclear power can help make it happen by switching to Juice. (Call 0800 316 2610 or go to www.SwitchtoJuice.com) for instant connection. It does the changeover from your present supplier and it costs the same. It is not more expensive.) The market for green power is still shockingly small - with just 56,000 green subscribers to various schemes. With Juice, every new subscriber will add to the demand for green energy.
Unusually Greenpeace has endorsed a commercial enterprise - answering critics who accuse it of perpetual, knee-jerk negativity. It is counterintuitive to find green campaigners lobbying in favour of a large development (they are not being paid or taking any profits). They and Friends of the Earth are also fighting against the conservative-minded Council for the Protection of Rural England, who oppose wind farms as an eyesore.
For now, the main opponent is pro-nuclear Country Guardian, whose anti-windfarm website (www.countryguardian.net) wins the breathtaking hypocrisy award: "It is unacceptable that our last great landscapes should be heavily industrialised in a futile political gesture.
Wilderness is a non-renewable resource crucial to the sanity of a pressurised and overcrowded world. It must not be sacrificed for a derisory and largely illusory contribution to clean energy supply when there are far more effective and cost effective strategies." Readers may consider last week's spectacle of over-heated French nuclear power stations discharging nuclear hot water straight into rivers for fear of meltdown in the heat rather more environmentally alarming than windmills three miles out at sea.
Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth are often accused of raising panics about new technologies. It's easy to stir people up against big government, big corporations, big energy. But now they find themselves in a knock-down, drag-out fight with just the kind of local action groups that used to be their mainstay. They have had to make hard choices between minor damage to countryside views and saving the planet. This weekend, they will be appealing to Porthcawl citizens to make the same choice. Anyone else who supports wind power should sign up for Juice right now.
