Wind farm threat claim

Dec 12 2008 by Les Stewart, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

WIND farms can cause as much damage to the environment as a factory, shopping centre or housing scheme, it was claimed yesterday by the Perthshire-based John Muir Trust.

A report, released by the environmental charity on the unseen threat the giant turbines pose to Britain’s precious upland areas, claims that a large-scale wind farm destroys the equivalent of almost 70 international-sized football pitches.

The report – released in the week that a Scottish Council for Development and Industry study claimed that Scotland needs a three-fold increase in wind turbines to meet 2020 green energy targets – calls on the Scottish Government to develop a National Renewable Strategy to ensure that upland habitats are adequately protected.

The report reveals that a large, 53-turbine wind farm, including access roads, borrow pits and cabling trenches, damages and destroys the equivalent of 68 international sized football pitches (441,600m²) of land.

Richard Hill, the trust’s climate change officer, said: “Few people realise that a wind farm can do as much harm to the environment as any other large-scale development such as a factory, shopping centre or housing scheme.”

And he pointed out that the vast majority of wind farms in Scotland are being developed in sensitive upland habitats rather than on cultivated farmland or brownfield sites.

Upland areas contain important grassland habitats for wildlife, as well as storing three billion tonnes of carbon in peat.

“Britain’s upland areas contain approximately 10.9% of EU peat and peat topped soils, making them our equivalent carbon store to the rainforests,” said Hill.