Tuesday 6 June 2017

R.E.S.



Renewable Energy Systems. It sounds good on paper.  Does it look good? This is a picture of my house although you will need a magnifying glass to find it. These turbines won't directly affect me as I can't see or (hopefully) hear them from my garden but they are already changing how we live in the village. Yesterday I was driving home when a cement mixer, going so fast that it was almost obliterated in dust, nearly ran me off the road.  As it approached I pulled over and frantically waved my arm out of the window. The driver screached to a halt and backed up. Uh oh I thought, what's going to happen now. He wanted to know what was wrong.  I told him he was going too fast for such a narrow road. He said sorry, but he thought the mixers had the road to themselves.  I told him he was wrong; cows, sheep and the occasional camel and their drivers used the road. School buses and moped users used it. Dogs were walked along it and it was my way home. He again said sorry but it brings it home how the builders of these turbines have no concept of the life that has to continue around them. These hills were home to the Lelegians well over two millennium ago. We're any archaeologists on site when the massive holes were dug for the foundations?  Will the pine trees survive when the blades start turning and reduce the moisture in the air?  Will the amount of energy each turbine produces in its short lifetime justify the amount of energy needed to build, transport and erect it?  Wouldn't a solar energy plant be more appropriate in an area where it is sunny nearly every day but not nearly so windy? Would it not have been at least polite to consult local community leaders before the project went ahead?  
My only consolation is that they are better here than on the Bodrum peninsula where some are to be sited dangerously close to villages.  The sad fact is that despite protests and court cases, the construction in these contentious sites is still going on. 

14 comments:

  1. Solar would have been much the better choice - I do wonder if the turbines are actually connected to the electricity grid?

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    1. Not yet as they are only just springing up.

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  2. i know its a really contentious subject - as you say - but if you take a drive through Yatagan any day, or particularly on a cloudy day, you can appreciate the alternative. The days of fossil fuels have to end. I guess the turbine fabricators held more sway than the solar panel producers when it came to contracts.

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    1. There is an electric 'farm' just before Yatağan. I would be very interested to know its output. The awful tragedy of Coal mining in Turkey is a) its appalling safety record and b) the low grade of the coal which is extra polluting.

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  3. Hideous aesthetic crimes...they are starting tolitter the country here too..

    Brother in law who is a chartered electrical engineer with years working for the Australian power system says that the elecricity produced is what he calls dirty and needs expensive treatment to enter the grid.

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  4. wind should have formed part of the responsible alternative many, many years back. The reality is that the world is well beyond the 'tipping point' of run-away anthropomorphic climate disruption that it really doesn't matter any more. The process is unstoppable and whilst the planet will adapt and evolve we, and countless other species, will not. Sip your G&Ts, ice and a slice of lime whilst you can and keep the Co-proxamol handy!

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  5. Sorry, but infinitely better than coal - especially with all the horrible mine accidents. Agree that solar would have been better but.... it's renewable, not nuclear, and people aren't dying underground to produce the pollution.

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    1. You are of course right about the coal, but solar should be the obvious choice for here.

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  6. Thank you for bringing this topic up for discussion. So many people are still unaware of the long and short term health/psychological effects that these turbines have not just on people but on animals - not to mention the irreparable damage caused to the flora and fauna, starting from the time of construction and continuing during active use.

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  7. Do what the Danes did and we're finally doing. Stick 'em out to sea. It giving the stuggling economies of Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth a boost. As you know, we have wind, lots of it!

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  8. B to B, We've despaired of anything happening which will result in a positive outcome for the public as long as private profit and cronyism are part of the mix.

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  9. Dear B to B, I've really become jaded about government. It started during the VietNam war and has only gotten worse--my jaded-ness I mean. I just think that power truly corrupts. Peace.

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