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'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can

'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can


Postby lukemunrowalker » Wed Jun 30, 2021 7:48 pm

I just saw this today, I really like the hills around Moffat and think it's a terrible shame that they are under threat of being decimated by yet another windfarm eyesore.

A few of my own thoughts first, but if you are in a hurry please skip to the important info from the save our hills guys linked below

I remember when I was young and saw my first big modern windmill up close - I thought it was amazing, and I still liked them when I only ever saw just a few here and there on my travels - Now I can't stand them - There is just too many, and they are all the same cut and paste design. I really feel there is something totally inhuman about them, the design, the scale, and most of all the numbers of them. I think this technology could have been explored in a way that was way more sympathetic to the hills.

The deadline for representations to the Energy Consents Unit has been extended until 31st August 2021.

Here is the info on how to object by email:
https://www.saveourhillsmoffat.co.uk/object-to-scoop-hill

Please share the links wherever you feel people might be interested

here is the website with info and links:
https://www.saveourhillsmoffat.co.uk/

Key Elements

75 turbines – most between 200 and 250 metres high

Nearest turbines will be 3 miles SE of Moffat

Will cover 22 square miles of Annandale Hills

Will be visible from Moffat, Beattock, Lockerbie, Lochmaben and the M74

Nearly 45 years lifecycle – 18 months construction; 40 years in use; 2 years decommissioning

40 miles of access tracks will be constructed and left in situ

Installed Capacity 525 Mega Watts – anticipated to operate at a capacity factor in the region of 50%

Once operational, 11 full-time permanent staff will be employed

Community benefit payments - £500,000 per annum to be divided between the six affected communities, over 40 years

Key Questions

How comfortable are you living on the edge of one of the largest windfarms in the UK, with 800ft high turbines, only 3 miles from Moffat?

Would you find it disconcerting that the gently rotating blades of the turbines are actually traveling at up to 180 miles per hour at the blade tips?

How do you feel that an array of giant turbines will be the gateway to Scotland for visitors travelling the main arterial route (A74M) to the Highlands?

How happy are you that the development is within a low-flying zone; and turbines will be fitted with aviation lighting which could impact Moffat Dark Skies?

What is your opinion of the collision risk for golden eagles, calculated to be 1 bird every 3.64 years?..

How do you feel about 63 hectares of hills being used for the permanent land take of hard standings?

Did you know that Constraints Payments are paid to wind farm operators to switch off their turbines at times of high production but low demand?

Are you aware that 39% of jobs in Moffat depend on tourism?

Are you happy that Dumfries and Galloway is already one of the most heavily wind farmed areas in Scotland?
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Re: 'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can

Postby AyrshireAlps » Wed Jun 30, 2021 8:04 pm

Tbh, most of our local hills are covered in god awful forestry anyway, I'm out.
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Re: 'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can

Postby lukemunrowalker » Wed Jun 30, 2021 8:14 pm

It looks like this is the map of the proposed wind farm site, and that's the Southern Upland Way skirting along the top of the proposed farm

Btw, Please feel free to use this thread to voice your opinion on windfarms in general, if your not bothered about this because it's not your backyard or an area you visit regularly, then, please be aware that they will not stop here. Wind Farms are becoming the goto way for lazy politicians to fulfil their green ecology targets, and they will keep on signing off on more and more of them if they go unopposed. Nowhere is safe from this. Take a picture of your favourite views now, who knows what they'll look like in a few years time.

Image
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Re: 'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can

Postby lukemunrowalker » Wed Jun 30, 2021 8:27 pm

AyrshireAlps wrote:Tbh, most of our local hills are covered in god awful forestry anyway, I'm out.


I absolutely agree, I've written the odd angry letter to various organisations about the debris left behind by felling, it looks like the aftermath of a tsunami. On the bright side I was speaking to a few of the forestry commision guys down there fairly recently, I was informed that most of the saplings now going in are broad leafs, hardwoods and so on, a new policy of long term 100+ years investment. It might only take ten years or so before it starts to look like the beginings of something decent.
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Re: 'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can

Postby lukemunrowalker » Wed Jun 30, 2021 8:53 pm

From the developers submission data, artists impression of Moffat high street, one of the oldest town high streets in Scotland, totally not spoiled by big ugly windmills in the background. Also note how the 'artist' skillfully blends the white windmills into the sky. I think they'll be much more obvious in reality

Image
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Re: 'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can

Postby lukemunrowalker » Wed Jun 30, 2021 8:59 pm

Image zoomed and lowered brightness

Image
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Re: 'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can

Postby jupe1407 » Wed Jun 30, 2021 9:42 pm

I think I'm firmly in the "not bothered by them" camp tbh.

I don't think there's any easy solution to this debate either. Renewables in some form or other are here to stay, the only debate is really what form they take.
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Re: 'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can

Postby Giant Stoneater » Wed Jun 30, 2021 9:54 pm

Recently read that there are over 50 windfarms planned for around the country and they are getting taller and bigger.
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Re: 'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can

Postby LobeyD » Wed Jun 30, 2021 10:00 pm

I think on the day that it hit 47C in Canada, the famously cold place, that perhaps worrying about the view from Moffat High Street may be seen as slightly narrow-minded. :wink:
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Re: 'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can

Postby AyrshireAlps » Wed Jun 30, 2021 10:41 pm

Lol, aye, spot on!.

I'm not far away obviously, and I'd swap you the wind turbines for a hulking great nuclear power station, that only has had one reactor from two running for a couple of years now, but will take decades to decommission.
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Re: 'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can

Postby Sunset tripper » Wed Jun 30, 2021 10:55 pm

LobeyD wrote:I think on the day that it hit 47C in Canada, the famously cold place, that perhaps worrying about the view from Moffat High Street may be seen as slightly narrow-minded. :wink:


To be fair, they can put up windfarms all over Scotland and it will make no difference to the temperature in Canada.
If anyone is serious about climate change this is the major issue. - see link below.

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

Ps. I wonder why our politicians don't cover Arthur's Seat with wind turbines and every day they could be reminded of what a fine job they are doing. :D
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Re: 'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can

Postby Giant Stoneater » Thu Jul 01, 2021 9:22 am

Sunset tripper wrote:
Ps. I wonder why our politicians don't cover Arthur's Seat with wind turbines and every day they could be reminded of what a fine job they are doing. :D


Plenty of wind from the government building to them turning. :wink:
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Re: 'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can

Postby Lightfoot2017 » Thu Jul 01, 2021 5:10 pm

I've turned 180 degrees in my opinions on wind farms in recent years. Used to be all for them. But after having taken the time to research the issue and read the propaganda from Both sides, I'm now firmly in the anti-windfarm camp.

Not just because visually they look ugly as hell. But also because they're hugely inefficient and a massive burden on the public purse. They are obscenely subsidised, both directly and indirectly.

If a fraction of the resource that's gone into windfarms over the past 30+ years had gone into wave and tidal power, then Scotland (with c7000 miles of coastline) really could be the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy.

The fact, as one poster says above, that windfarm operators are paid to switch their turbines OFF during periods of low demand is particularly galling.

For me the future has to be nuclear. Anyone who cares to research the issue thoroughly will see the sense in that.
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Re: 'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can

Postby brpro26 » Thu Jul 01, 2021 10:29 pm

From pretty much any Munro summit you'll see a windfarm away in the distance, with the odd exception possibly. It's just the way it's going unfortunately. They seem to spring up from nowhere and we don't get much say in it.
The amount that have sprung up along the A92 in Fife beside Mossmorran and extending down the Fife Riviera to Leven is ridiculous, you're concerned about 3 miles away...try 300mts away. You also see the odd single popping up over a hill in various locations. I'm not a great fan(slight pun intended) but just have to live with it.
Wait until the view out to the Forth and Isle of May is blighted by the planned off-shore farm.
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Re: 'Save Our Hills Moffat' - Please help in any way you can

Postby iain_atkinson_1986 » Fri Jul 02, 2021 5:14 am

brpro26 wrote:From pretty much any Munro summit you'll see a windfarm away in the distance, with the odd exception possibly. It's just the way it's going unfortunately. They seem to spring up from nowhere and we don't get much say in it.
The amount that have sprung up along the A92 in Fife beside Mossmorran and extending down the Fife Riviera to Leven is ridiculous, you're concerned about 3 miles away...try 300mts away. You also see the odd single popping up over a hill in various locations. I'm not a great fan(slight pun intended) but just have to live with it.
Wait until the view out to the Forth and Isle of May is blighted by the planned off-shore farm.


Given you can see Grangemouth from Fife windfarms aren't exactly a big issue when it comes to spoiling views...
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