Debating the Merits of Energy From Air

Supporters see modern wind turbines not as Don Quixote’s ferocious giants but as elegant symbols of a clean-energy future. But as the industry expands amid global pressure to cut carbon emissions and fight climate change, an increasingly mobilized anti-wind farm lobby in Europe, North America and elsewhere is decrying the turbines as ugly, noisy and destructive, especially for picturesque locales that rely on tourism. “These are not just one or two turbines spinning majestically in the blue sky and billowing clouds,” said Lisa Linowes, executive director of Industrial Wind Action Group, an international advocacy group based in New Hampshire that opposes wind farms.
In Europe, home to 13 of the 20 biggest wind energy markets, the European Union wants to cut carbon emissions 20 percent by 2020. As a result, turbines are getting bigger, and “people are afraid that there will be these humongous wind parks that will block the sunset,” said Catalina Robledo, European wind energy analyst for Emerging Energy Research, based in Barcelona.

To ease worries, wind park developers are increasingly weighing the design of a high-productivity wind park against the costs of muting its effect on the landscape, Ms. Robledo said.

Some of the most vocal critics are in Britain, home to more than 150 wind-power projects. Wind farm opponents say the turbines in industrial farms are so big — from 90 to more than 125 yards in height — that they are inevitably intrusive.

“The eyes are constantly drawn to them,” said John Ferguson, a member of S.O.U.L. (or Save Our Unspoilt Landscape), a group opposing the nine-turbine Barmoor Wind Farm in the lush northeastern English county of Northumberland. Several wind farm developers are considering Northumberland, whose castles and national parks are a big tourist draw.

New York Times