Why we are Concerned
Take a minute of your time to read why we should all be concerned….
Meenbog Disaster
Catastrophic Ecological Disaster
A huge landslide into rivers in Donegal and Tyrone which started on the site of a new windfarm. The peat slide originated on land which was being developed as a wind farm at Meenbog near Stranorlar in County Donegal in conjunction with global retail firm, Amazon.
Thousands of tonnes of peat bog, trees and vegetation were swept into the Mourne Beg and Derg Rivers during the peat slide on November 13th 2020.
Are the relevant bodies going to let this happen again with Mullaghclogher?
The Moat
Mullaghclogher ([Mullach Clochair) is a mountain summit in Sperrin Mountain range in the counties of Derry and Tyrone, Ireland. Locally, Mullaghclogher has been known as ‘The Moat’ for generations. Mullaghclogher is 572 metres high with a prominence of 130 metres. The Sperrin Mountains is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). This summit is arguably the most iconic view in the Sperrins and is etched in the minds of local residents and beyond for countless generations. The proposed Industrial Wind Farm is in the heart of this unique environment with its own rich culture and history.
The Turbines
The introduction of 12 wind turbines measuring up to 180 metres in height would have a detrimental impact on this part of the Sperrins AONB. This unique environment would be damaged beyond repair for future generations. The scenic quality of the Sperrins AONB would be compromised forever.
Roads access
In order to build these monster turbines a number of roads will have to be built on the mountain side. These roads will have to be wide enough and strong enough to transport the Turbine parts including blades of approx. 75 Metres. Enormous Cranes and Massive Earth Moving Machinery will be required to build the roads and erect the turbines.
Building the access roads and Turbine sites will require the removal of up to 25 Ha of peatland some of which will be Blanket bog. This equates to hundreds of thousands of tons of peatland. Where will this be taken to or will it be left to break down on site and create emissions of Carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere for years to come?
Also, the ginormous size of the turbine parts and construction plant will require many miles of existing roads leading to the site to be widened and strengthened. This will cause significant damage to hedges and associated habitats. The whole area will be a construction site for years.
Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS)
The proposed Industrial Wind Farm will require BESS systems to operate. These are based on lithium batteries, are now increasingly being built both alongside new windfarm developments and separately as stand-alone installations. These have a number of health issues including exploding at times.
Tourism
Due to recent investments by Tourism NI and local Councils, as well as the hard work of local entrepreneurs’, the Sperrins is an increasingly popular area with tourists and any wind farm at this location will detrimentally impact the tourism industry in this area. The Sperrins attracts many visitors and it is particularly popular for walking and hiking. Specifically for example, the Council has invested in Balix’s Boardwalk and now this investment will be undermined by the development of this wind farm.
It will be impossible for tourism campaigns to advertise the scenic nature of the Sperrins and tourists will be disenfranchised in return.
Archaeology
The area is rich in archaeological features and those are only the ones that have been identified to date. If the construction works commences on site it is likely that the digging will uncover other archaeological features and items.
Cumulative Impact/Wind turbine saturation:
There are too many wind turbines and wind farm proposals for the Sperrins area. Hence the cumulative impact of all the proposals will be too high. It should be noted that the size of ‘small’ turbines has increased from 250 Kw and a height of 35 Metres to around 1000 Kw and a height of more than 110 Metres in many cases.
This cumulative upscaling of size and numbers of turbines in the Sperrins will have a dramatic effect on the visual impact for all residents and visitors to the area not to even mention the increased health implications.
The proposed Industrial Wind Farm has failed to take into consideration the cumulative impact of existing wind turbines, those which have permissions and those that are currently the subject of undetermined applications.
There are several wind farms, existing and proposed, in the area including but not limited to;
• Craignagabble Wind Farm
• Eglish Wind Farm
• Owenreagh Wind Farm
• SlieveKirk Wind Farm
• Several other as yet unnamed wind farms at numerous locations.
It is clear that the area is oversaturated with wind turbines and that people in the area are going to be surrounded by wind turbines, adding to sense of feeling hemmed in.
Rising Bills
Another problem is that consumers pay if too much electricity is generated. The contracts under which wind energy is supplied include a provision to pay wind farms to shut down if their output is not needed. ie. when the wind is blowing but demand is low and the capacity of transmission lines is exceeded. This is known as a constraint payment. The cost of constraint payments to wind farm operators is also borne by the consumer via higher electricity prices.
• Wind energy requires long transmission lines. The Electricity generated in Derry and Strabane area is needed in Belfast or Dublin. Such long transmission lines also lead to greater power loss through the length of the transmission lines themselves. This can be a substantial loss – estimated as up to 8% over these types of distances.
• Carbon Debt. Turbines may never pay off their ‘carbon debt’. Current models fail to take into account the construction cost and environmental impact of the turbine components or the manufacture and installation of the associated cables and transmission lines. It also assumes that damage to peatland is successfully addressed by restoration efforts.
Local jobs
There is an established industry producing wind turbines overseas by firms such as Vestas and Siemens. Most employment arising from wind farm developments come during the planning and construction stage . Wind farm site supervisors can look after several wind farms in an area. Consequently, the number of permanent local jobs arising from wind farms is tiny.
Overview
For all the reasons listed above this proposed development should not proceed. We love living in this area in the mountains and chose to live in this scenic area to raise our families/retire/close to relatives. It seems unfair that a wind farm with some of the largest/highest turbines in Northern Ireland would impact our way of life as well as the proposed Industrial Wind farm clearly being contrary to planning policy.
It is evident to us that this proposal would cause considerable harm to the Environment and landscape interest of a large part of the Sperrin Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and its unique archaeological, cultural and tourism assets. The possible economic and environmental benefits of the proposal would not outweigh the harm to these important interests. The wind farm would also detrimentally impact on residents living in the area.
Some of the information on this page will be updated when further information becomes available during the processing of the application.
WHO: Wind Turbine Noise as a Health Hazard
In 2018, for the first time, the World Health Organisation announced guidelines for wind turbine ‘noise.’
This Guideline recognizes that the “noise” is more than just ‘annoyance’ and that chronic noise contributes to cardiovascular disease; lack of sleep, hearing loss, tinnitus and stress; and increased changes in blood pressure and heart health.
Source: https://www.masterresource.org/wind-turbine-noise-issues/wto-wind-turbine-noise-as-a-health-hazard/
Source: https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/279952/9789289053563-eng.pdf?sequence=1
Solid Science Supports the Reality of ‘Wind Turbine Syndrome’
America out loud news carried out interviews where listeners heard two episodes called The Other Side of the Story (here and here), You can hear people living close to 60-story high industrial wind turbines report a range of very real physical symptoms ranging from mild to severe, in some cases debilitating. Among the symptoms reported are insomnia, chest pain, heart palpitations, back pain, fatigue, skin infections, stomach ulcers, headaches, decreased vision, dizziness, severe joint and muscular pain, and neurological disturbances.
America Out Loud Podcast States: To help us understand what science actually says about this, Tom is joined today by Professor Mariana Alves-Pereira, an expert in the effects of infrasound (sound below the audible spectrum) on humans. Mariana holds a B.Sc. in Physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, an M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from the New University of Lisbon in Portugal. She is currently an Associate Professor affiliated with Lusófona University in Lisbon, where she taught Biophysics and Biomaterials in health science programs, as well as Physics and Hygiene in workplace safety and health programs until 2016. Today, Mariana is co-founder and senior researcher at IARO -International Acoustics Research Organization, headquartered in New Zealand.
Mariana has been researching the biological response to infrasound and low-frequency noise since 1988, has received three scientific awards, and has authored and co-authored over 50 scientific publications. So, we are very fortunate to have her on the show today. Listen in to discover what wind turbine companies would rather you didn’t know!