United Kingdom( UK) a home to 61.4 million people ( as of 2009) has an electricity consumption of 345,798,000 MW/h /yr with an average of 6,120kWh per capita ranking successfully in one of the most energy demanding countries being the 7th in the CO2 production with 558,225 metric tones of CO2 comprising nearly 2.5% of total world’s 22,829,463.2 tonnes of Co2 emissions! With the increase in GDP that rose up by 102% between 1970 and 2001the energy demands in UK has been a concern and the energy consumption increased by 157%. These impressive statistics can be a lot more than just development and development comes associated with pollution. There are pressures over UK getting the ‘final warning’ over air pollution as the toxic gases from power stations and transport caused a threat to so many lives and the economy is also hampered where “enormous” deal as much as £8.5bn and £20.2bn each year is spent for health services. The Commons environmental audit report declares that, “More could be done to prevent the early deaths of up to 50,000 people each year hastened by air pollution”. As per the World Health Organization 2.4 million people die each year attributable to very unfortunate cause- air pollution! UK fails to keep up the limits of the harmful gases emissions and the nitrogen dioxide emissions are almost 2.5 times higher than the EU limit. These shocking figures of deaths can be eliminated and minimized just by a little paradigm shift of changing the Industrial conquest for profits and burning the fossil fuels endlessly to simple seeking and developing the more eco friendly and sustainable “Renewable” or the “Green energy”. The ambitions of the UK has been high especially in setting up Wind farms since the long coastlines and the position of the UK make them very favorable for onshore wind farms and the Energy white paper aims to supply up to 20% of the total energy by 2020 by renewable and has also signed a Europe-wide agreement!
“The source of renewable energy… are inexhaustible, indigenous and abundant, and their exploitation properly managed, has the potential to enhance the long term security of the United Kingdom’s energy supplies and to help us cut down carbon dioxide emissions” Comments the House of Lords Science and Technology Community and we all know that it is the renewable that can mitigate to climate change. The geographical condition of the UK with shallow waters and strong winds, windiest in the Europe make the Wind energy favorable having 8000 miles of coastline and offer the largest offshore wind resource in the world. There are estimates also that a mere 1/3rd of the total offshore is enough to power the whole of the UK! It is estimated that a modern 2.5MW turbine at a reasonable site has a potential to meet the needs of over 1,400 households with a generation of 6.5 million units of electricity each year. There are 1,700 wind turbines already operating in the UK, sufficient for over 1,000,000 homes and it is surmised that with only 10% of the UK’s land area the total energy demand can be sufficed with a side effect of reduction in CO2 emissions, thus help in climate change as referred by C. R Warren et. al’, “post construction, wind power emits no greenhouse gases, has none of the risks of nuclear energy and distrupts ecosystem much less than large scale hydro-power plants.”
Moreover this invites more job opportunities for innovators/academic institutions. The economy could also enjoy a boost with share benefits from the sale of electricity from National Grid just like the installations in Swaffham, Norfolk. The UK could set as an example too for utilizing its energy from the renewable sources just the way Germany, Denmark, Sweden, even Iceland are busy tapping their energy sources from every possible renewable source. History proves the wind farm in Orkney, is Britain’s first wind farm dating back to 1978 and various in 1991 at Cornwell and this shows there is great impetus in this wind energy in the Great Britain.
Oppositions on loss of scenic value, noise pollution and vibration during construction like infrasound are reasonable and there might be military objections in low flying training zones and issues like the production, transport, installation produce emissions, the policies according to the Planning Commissions are very careful in taking the maximum of precautions to enable it as eco friendly as possible. These drawbacks are negligible as compared to the contribution the wind farms can have. The policies designed in 2003 ensure the major concerns are addressed including the residential amenity on noise, safe separation distances, landscape characteristics and visibility, heritage designations, green belts, electromagnetic interference and even reduction of the flickering effects that the local people might complain about. They also mention that nationally designated landscapes will be considered and Government would not process without cumulative Impact assessment relating to wind farms and even considers the cumulative zones of visual influence and topography.
With lesser spaces taken by the installations compared to the power plants, the lands still can be used for agriculture. There could be no better deal than this to get a free resource of energy, that has 0 emission potential and that boosts the economy and lets the farmers enjoy a continues income through the lease of land while they can practice agriculture at the same time and with just one eighth of the entire land area, the whole Britain’s power requirements can be met.
While scientists are busy calculating and warning us about the threats of the climate change and they predict that if carbon dioxide levels continue to increase in the similar trend, the impact can be horrifying leading to sea level rise thus leading to droughts and floods and the list of threats is endless with the extreme weather and the whole natural balance can be charred. Maria McCaffery MBE, BWEA Chief Executive, mentions "Renewable energy is not a luxury item. Without a dramatic change in the way we use and produce our energy we will not stop climate change." Now it is on us what we need to do, choose a Greener technology that is sustainable or cling to our fairly smaller personal interests and call ourselves concerned about the environment by opposing a Demigod to be unleashed who can make this earth a better place to live with intelligent technology and with a “sustainable concept”.
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