WINDMILLS OF YOUR MIND

As our occasional visitor, "windturbines", has indicated, a Non-Governmental Organisation by the name of Environmental Protection UK has called for updated guidelines on noise on the grounds that wind turbines are much bigger today than they were when the Government's guidelines on noise were established back in the '90s.

Naturally, this is being sold by anti-windfarm nimbies as a campaign against bigger, noisier wind turbines.

But, as usual, the way the nimbies interpret these things might be slightly at odds with what's really going on.

Environmental Protection UK has published on its website some correspondence with Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Lord Hunt wisely, and rightly, points out:

"You're quite right that modern turbines are generally larger than those on which the ETSU-R-97 guidance was based. Noise outputs from these larger turbines have also, however, reduced in that time. Since the ETSU-R-97 derived noise limits are a function of background noise, there is currently no evidence to suggest that the larger turbines are any more likely to cause a noise impact than earlier and smaller designs ..."

In other words, given that modern turbines are considerably quieter than the early designs on which the Government's guidelines were based, there is hardly a prima facie case for revising the guidelines on the grounds of noise.

But the nimbies want people to think that bigger turbines equal more noise. It's not true - in fact, it's the opposite of the truth. By spinning the news, however, the nimby brigade, VVASP included, reveal their deep-rooted dishonesty.

Environmental Protection UK seems to be calling for the guidelines to be revised simply because they are a few years old now. That doesn't mean that they're out-of-date, seeing as they were devised before advances in wind turbine design did a great deal to reduce the noise output from modern turbines so that - as anyone who has spent time at a modern windfarm will know - there's hardly any noise at all, and certainly nothing that can be heard a few hundred metres from the masts.

The NGO continues to support windfarms as part of the necessary national move towards renewables and sustainable energy. Reading between the lines, Environmental Protection UK seems to want new guidelines to help put people's minds at rest, and consequently to reduce the crazy amount of time that is currently wasted in fighting windfarm proposals.

But let's be clear. Environmental Protection UK is NOT stating that modern turbines are noisier than the older variety. That would be a foolish claim to make.

Which is precisely why nimby groups are making it.