Two new wind farms above Llanerfyl are proposed.

One by Vattenfall a Swedish company, the other by Bute Energy Ltd. We already have a proliferation of wind farms here in Mid Wales.

Climate change is upon us, Bute Energy glibly states in one of their brochures that both Powys and Shropshire councils report that the effects of climate change are already being seen in their counties. 

However if we act swiftly experts tell us we can reverse the process. 

Most of us individually try to live responsibly obeying day to day rules, for instance by recycling our waste and many more are gardening after the pandemic, conscious and caring for nature.

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These windfarm companies claim to be addressing the climate emergency by satisfying the need for electricity and fulfilling the zero emissions ambition of the Welsh Government. In fact what they are really doing is destructive.

Electricity, which unfortunately we all now find a necessity, has to be generated and there are many ways of doing this.

So-called Green Renewable Energy sounds clean and safe and what could be better than getting it out of the wind that blows about our heads? Not that easy.

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Wind Power doesn’t come free and the cost should be weighed against the harm done to the environment in the process.

Our most valuable weapons in the fight against climate change are our wild moorlands, left undisturbed as they are, sequestering carbon. 

Peatlands hold 30 percent of the carbon in our ecosystem, digging up peat releases CO2 back into the atmosphere, the loss of one peatland could potentially produce more carbon than 175-500 years of methane emissions. 

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Each wind turbine has to have a large base dug for it to stand on filled with concrete, also, alongside another large base for construction machinery, releasing the carbon back into the atmosphere.

Not only destroying our landscape visually an amenity shared and enjoyed by our valuable tourist industry, but causing permanent harm to the environment. The concrete will be there for ever.

The windfarms also need new access roads constructed with heavy aggregate, built across unspoilt farming landscape. 

All grassland is valuable in carbon sequestering so is what many might regard as waste scrub land and trees that we are encouraged to plant. 

These important weapons against climate change have to be cleared away, sacrificed for the heavy aggregate to bear the weight of juggernauts carrying the massive turbines and blades. 

What I wonder, is the carbon footprint for each journey undertaken to bring the turbines and blades along our country roads and up to the sites? Let alone the inconvenience caused to normal road traffic

The Environment Act 2021 enshrined into law the UK government’s efforts to combat climate change by nature restoration Has the Welsh government costed out the benefits of wind farming against the sheer wanton destruction and CO2 emission caused by building each windfarm?

Too much harm has already been done, when a species begins to destroy its own environment it. signals extinction
LA Smith
Llanerfyl