UK residents condemn onshore wind farm ‘bribery’

Typical onshore turbines produce 4 megawatts each per year Environmentalists from Britain's West Country say a government proposal to compensate local communities for new onshore wind farms will not quell protests. North Devon chairman of the Campaign to Protect Rural England Bob Barfoot told local media opposition to the "blighting" effects of wind turbines in southwestern England would not be pacified by increased payments to local cities and towns.
Proposals from Britain's Department of Energy and Climate Change would require wind farm developers to pay an annual minimum of $8,000 into a "community trust" for each megawatt of generating capacity they install -- significantly more than the current industry standard of $1,600 per megawatt, one local newspaper reported.
A typical onshore wind turbine with a capacity of 4 megawatts thus would funnel $32,000 per year into local communities.
Critics, however, have derided the idea as "bribery for blight" as Britain seeks to boost the total of its energy mix from onshore wind above its current three percent.
Barfoot said the higher levels of compensation, which he said are meant to "sterilise" environmental and local planning committee opposition to new wind farms, would not local residents’ minds.
"Developers already do this but the amount has been increased to entice people into lowering their resistance," he said. "No amount of money is going to help you if you have got a huge turbine dominating your property.”
In September, British Energy Secretary Ed Davey launched a "call for evidence" to gauge the true costs and benefits that come from heavy subsidies handed out to onshore wind farms.
Part of that effort is to counter the protests with an examination of "the financial, social and environmental benefits from hosting onshore wind farms."
"Onshore wind has an important role to play in a diverse energy mix that is secure, low carbon and affordable," he said. "We know that two-thirds of people support the growth of onshore wind. But far too often, host communities have seen the wind farms but not the windfall.”
Davey said Britain has "got to see a big improvement in how developers engage with local communities, new ways of ensuring a sense of local ownership and more obvious local economic benefits."
British Member of Parliament Caroline Flint, the opposition Labour Party's shadow energy secretary told local media the scheme amounts to "bribery" of local officials that mainly benefits the country's handful of big energy companies.
"In Germany, 65 percent of wind farms, solar farms and other renewable energy generation are owned by local communities who get to keep all the benefits, not just a small percentage," she said.
"That would be a much sounder system for local people and for Britain."
Source: UPI