What is your view on offshore wind farms?

Question

I am currently doing research for my dissertation which is to do with public perception on offshore windfarms.

Just general opinions on how you think they look, advantages?, disadvantages? Is the UK's target of 20% of electricity needs by renewable energy realistic by 2020? Are people willing to change as the public have a key role in the development process of proposed windfarms. Etc..

Any opinions either for or against would be a great help.

Answer 1

They are a d**n eyesore!! We were in sad old Great Yarmouth

(only passing through) and there are a lot there! I'm all for wind/sea power but out of sight!!!

Answer 2

Wind farms are inefficient at the best of times.

Too much wind and they can't operate.

No wind and they don't operate.

The gearboxes are cr@p

The amount of energy they produce means that hundreds/thousands have to be erected to produce the equivalent of another green method of producing energy - hydro energy.

Answer 3

Anything that reduces our reliance on foreign supplied energy has to be good.

All we need is a tiff with Russia and we'll put our Natural Gas supply in jeopardy.  As for oil...... work it out for yourself.

Answer 4

Well they are nt placed in the streets or in full veiw of the public like electic pylons and they are the butt uglyies things in the world they even cover the mountains where wind farms tend to be out ok the way they look better than pylons its only the ramblers who tend to object but they dont complain about pylons i welcome them

Answer 5

how do you plan to transmit the power? if you are building towers to hang transmission lines from, i think it would be cost prohibitive.

Answer 6

i like them, but them again i don't live near one - i am sure i would get sick of them if they were there all the time. I don't think they are ugly either because i know that it is good for the environment and so they are kinda 'cute' - but i guess i have never been up close to one.

Answer 7

I think that offshore windfarms are a great idea. We need to have energy from somewhere and theres only so much oil left. There is a windfarm in Kettering, not offshore, and I think it is really quite good to look at, although I have heard others say it is an eyesore.

As for people willing to change, I know that most people I know now wash and recycle tins, bottles and card etc, whereas a few years ago it all went in the bin.

Shops make you feel almost criminal for using carrier bags and I have seen so many people with reusable ones, so I think that yes, people are willing to change. Whether they would do so without the push from the shops, or threats to charge people who don't recycle, I dont' know!

Answer 8

I am all for them. They are a clean renewable source of energy

Answer 9

blowed if i know

Answer 10

Hi we live in the middle of the fens and have a wind-farm about a mile away. It has 8 120metre high turbines and I/we think they look nice! They break up the horizon and look gracefull. If we stand in our back garden we can count about 30+. I'm all for them they are nice!

Answer 11

I don't understand why there aren't more of them.

It's clean energy, practically endless.

The aesthetic thing seems like a joke to me. Freeways are ugly as h**l yet we find them everywhere.