A PACKED public meeting in North Tawton last week was warned not to be ?green-washed? into believing wind turbines were the answer to the UK?s renewable energy needs. The warning came from television and radio personality Noel Edmonds, chairman of the Renewable Energy Foundation. He was speaking at a meeting on Friday, organised by opponents of a proposed scheme to build a wind farm on land between North Tawton and Bow. Mr Edmonds said he had considered himself in favour of wind turbines, until he realised how little he really knew about the subject. ?Eighteen months ago, when I was asked if wind turbines were a good idea, I said ?Yes?. After 18 months, learning a lot, I see I was a fool to say ?Yes?. ?What I now realise is that we have been green-washed. The British Wind Energy Association have done a magnificent job pushing this technology.? Mr Edmonds said everyone had to look at ways of conserving energy, pointing to the fact that on average, people in the UK used twice as much energy as those in Japan. Mr Edmonds said the Renewable Energy Foundation which he helped to found, was a charity, with no affiliation to any political party, and whose aim was to build up an information bank compiling research from eminent scientists to enable people to be better informed. Mr Edmonds, who lives at nearby Jacobstowe, said: ?This development must not be allowed to proceed.? He also challenged the figures being used by developers Renewable Energy Systems Ltd in support of the plan, as ?at best, questionable and at worst, misleading.? Responding, project manager Rachel Ruffle invited Mr Edmonds to come to the RES office, so she could demonstrate how RES had calculated its figures. The invitation was accepted by Mr Edmonds. There was also a visible presence of supporters of wind farm technology who made their views known at the meeting held in North Tawton Town Hall. Maurice Spurway, of Exeter Friends of the Earth, told the audience that ?climate change was the most important issue facing the world today? and that wind farms, both on and offshore were required. Other members of environmental groups present at the meeting complained of bias. They were unhappy that the four members of the panel were all opposed to the scheme, while no-one with a different view had been invited to join the panel. The meeting was organised by the Den Brook Valley Action Group, which was formed by concerned residents to campaign against proposals to site ten turbines with a height of 331ft, or 19 turbines with a height of 262ft. Paul Ridgers, West Devon Borough Cllr for Drewsteignton told the meeting there needed to be a more coherent nationwide energy strategy. He said: ?This is a big national issue which demands a big national strategy. ?A few wind turbines blotting the countryside is not a strategic solution. We need more than just a lick of green paint on the existing infrastructure.? Also speaking at the meeting were West Devon and Torridge Liberal Democrat MP John Burnett, Tiverton and Honiton Conservative MP, Angela Browning, and Tim Hayle from the Renewable Energy Foundation. Mr Burnett suggested a Royal Commission should be set up to look at the whole issue of energy policy in the UK, which could ?inform everyone not just MPs?. This call was echoed by Winkleigh resident Jim French: ?We need an independent commission to try and get us the facts, not political facts, not commercial facts, but independent facts which we can believe in.? Devon County Cllr Bill Cann spoke at the meeting, stressing he was speaking as a county councillor, not as chairman of the Dartmoor National Park Authority which had not yet formally discussed the issue. He said: ?The blot on the landscape of these turbines is not something we want in the county of Devon. ?People say we have got them in Cornwall, but you can?t compare Devon with Cornwall. We have got a beautiful countryside and we want to keep it that way.? Developers RES say they are confident that modern wind turbine technology is benign and good for future generations. The company say opponents of wind power confuse efficiency with intermittency and that intermittent generation can be handled by the National Grid through load matching. They say the proposed turbines are predicted to generate 61GWH (gigawatt hours) of energy each year, which is the same amount as would be consumed by 12,900 average households.
