The post title refers to the fact that a 22 turbine wind farm will receive the go ahead today and it is one that will directly affect me inasmuch as my parents house is about 2 miles from the nearest turbine. I spent a long time educating my parents on the true performance details of large wind, not to convince them that they should support the wind farm proposal, but so they could make up their own minds based on good quality information rather than the guff offered particularly by the anti wind lobby. In the end they came out in favour and have, to a degree, suffered partial ostricisation within their local community for it.
It is very easy as a consultant to make recommendations that incur costs for my clients. It is easy to play with other peoples money.
However, being a concientious chap I always try to recommend the best fit balance of cost and environmental benefit within whatever framework or assessment methodolgy that may be appropriate. I try to adopt a level of sincerity when dealing with my clients that builds their trust. Not only is this good for repeat business but it helps in the client education programme that in our industry is always required. This is a topic all on its own and one which I will leave for a rainy day.
Unlike most of what I do, the wind farm has the potential to affect me financially very directly. At some point in the (hopefully not near) future I will inherit my parents house and the wind farm may indeed impact on the value of that. All the evidence from the BWEA suggests that post any initial shock of the development, wind farms do not generally impact on house prices, tourism etc. I am therefore prepared to put my money where my mouth is and welcome the wind farm with open arms. I also hope to be able to report first hand on living in the shadow of a wind farm in the future.
carbon limited 
I wish there were more people who would look at the facts, not some of the hype and misinformation regarding these projects. I used to live near a wind farm in Dumfries and Galloway, and found the turbines completely inoffensive – in fact I found them quite graceful. Noise was minimal, and after construction the environment returned to ‘normal’ very quickly. Certainly nicer than the coal powered station up the road 🙂
My problem is the way these large wind turbines are financed. The noise they create would be far less offensive if it wasn’t the sound of some corporate body making money out of our climates predicament.
The turbines on the Danish isalnd of Samso are owned by the community and all profits generated go back into that community. the ‘noise’ from these turbines is now celebrated like a traditional good harvest is. It even helps people sleep knowing there finanical security is being improved as they do so.