Those with an interest in windfarms may be interested to hear about the
collapse on Friday 2nd January in light winds of an 80 metre tall 2500kW
wind turbine. This turbine was one of eight in the Screggagh wind farm on
Murley Mountain in County Tyrone. The industrial sized turbine, valued at
over £500,000, collapsed and broke up scattering debris over a wide area.
(For sake of comparison the proposed Viking Windfarm turbines are 3600kW
and 145 metres tall).
People living in the area said the rotor blades were spinning out of
control and the sound of the breaking apart was heard more than 11
kilometres (seven miles) away. Debris from the stricken turbine is
scattered across the mountainside up to a kilometre away. A large spike is
impaled in the earth several hundred metres from the turbine site. (The
attached pictures are courtesy of Padraig McDermott).
Turbine collapses such as this are becoming a more common occurrence
worldwide with the proliferation of subsidised windfarms. So great is the
concern about such incidents that a new rule has been introduced in Bavaria
to regulate the minimum distance of turbines from dwellings. This is
because turbines planned for this area will be 200 metres tall.
These new rules introduce a formula for minimum distance from dwellings,
i.e. setback distance equals 10xH where “H” is the height of the turbine.
Thus for a 200 metre tall turbine the setback distance will be (200metres x
10) two kilometres.
The rationale behind this formula is that the basic laws of ballistics tell
us that in a turbine break-up scenario blade debris can be projected and
bounce to a distance of 10xH. This applies only to turbines on a flat
field, for those built on a hillside flying debris would carry and bounce
for a much greater distance.
Assuming the Viking turbines are only 145 metres tall then the danger zone
around them will be 1.45 kilometres (one mile). In actuality, the danger
zone around the Viking turbines will be much greater for they are planned
to be built on slopes and on hill-tops.
Unlike in Bavaria there is no law in Scotland that imposes the setback of
these industrial giants from dwellings but there is a recommended setback
distance of two kilometres. Viking Energy chose to ignore this
recommendation. Why? Because over 70 of the proposed 103 Viking turbines
are planned to go up within two kilometres of people’s houses. If they had
adhered to this recommendation to keep people and property out of the
danger zone there would be no Viking windfarm.
Remembering that much of the Viking windfarm is to built on Shetland
Islands Council owned land, this is not the first time that Viking Energy,
Shetland Charitable Trust and the SIC has played fast and loose with
people’s lives and property.
Two years of careful scrutiny by the experts in the SIC planning department
recommended that the Viking windfarm was not appropriate for Shetland, yet
this was binned in favour of “back of the fag packet economics” for which
that (now discredited) council was famous.
There was a Health Impact Assessment that was lauded as “world class” then
cancelled by Viking Energy, and a subsequent health investigation was
binned by trustees of Shetland Charitable Trust. Before and since then,
report after report in medical and scientific journals has come out
highlighting adverse health effects of infrasound from windfarms.
Noise, particularly low-frequency noise pollution, impacts negatively on
the health of those living within range of the turbines. This includes a
variety of symptoms including: sleep disturbance, depression, suicidal
tendencies, lack of concentration and energy, tinnitus, breathing
difficulties, migraines, nausea, etc. Most worrying of all are reports of
deaths of otherwise healthy animals and stillbirths and deformities in
newborns and yearlings.
Shetland’s hills carry the highest risk of peat-slides in the British Isles
due to its unique topography combined with rainfall patterns. Much of the
Viking windfarm will be built in the highest risk areas of Shetland.
Construction of the industrial complex with its 100 kilometres of access
roads to vast quarries and turbine sites will completely change the
drainage patterns of the hillsides. Peatslides will be inevitable.
Peatslides, like fragmenting turbine blades, can kill. Bearing in mind the
close proximity of this industrialisation to dwellings, who is picking up
the insurance tab if the windfarm is built?
The sitting Shetland Islands Council that handed over the Viking Energy
Project to the Charitable Trust was the same one that over many years got
Shetland into a needless financial mire that the present council is trying
to claw its way out of. It was pretty much the same band of people that sat
round the table in the Town Hall and denied Shetland (and the residents in
the danger zone of the windfarm) the benefit of a Public Local Inquiry
where all these concerns could have been addressed. Will the present 22
that sit around the table in the Town Hall have the guts or the political
will to address these concerns by denying Viking turbines access to SIC
owned land? I doubt it.
With or without a billion-pound interconnector cable the Viking Windfarm is
not financially viable. It is not environmentally desirable. It is not safe
for those living within the danger zone of 70 turbines. Our MP, MSP and our
councillors are deluding themselves by thinking that if a fairy godmother
pays for an interconnector cable it will unlock a great renewables industry.
Where do they think this industry is going to find the land in Shetland to
build all the extra turbines needed to make their industry viable? A “Ring
o’ 145 metre tall Roses” next to their houses? I don’t think so. The
wavefarm was always a non-starter. The plan of filling in Bluemull Sound to
generate electricity just four times a day to meet the extra demands of an
interconnector is just laughable.
If our councillors and Viking Energy had listened to their own planning
department all those years ago then options for an off-grid renewables
project for Shetland could have been looked at. If this had happened then
perhaps by now we would have a viable off-grid renewables industry
appropriate to Shetland supplying power for our own needs.
Allen Fraser
Meal,
Hamnavoe,
Burra.
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