We just have to go here because it is a recurring story about personal protectionism versus doing the right thing for the public, sustainability and leading the change.
I have previously written about Mr. Trump’s Trump Tower in New York City which has a glitzy interior reflective of the 1980’s. But one thing Mr. Trump tried hard to do was to ensure that no public had access to seating as required in the development permit for the building. He was required to create an 8,000 square foot public area with moveable chairs and tables, and insure a 22 foot long bench was available below the escalator for the public to sit on. The bench originally disappeared, then came back with plants covering it to ensure that no public could use it. Kudos to the City of New York for ensuring that the bench is now available for the public to use.
Mr. Trump also rallied against New York City’s proposal to require the retrofitting of sprinkler systems in all highrise buildings. I wrote about the man who died in a fire in his unit in New York City’s Trump Tower after Mr. Trump got a citywide exemption which meant that buildings like his, which were built before 1990, did not need to conform with the regulation.
And in Scotland Mr. Trump owns two golf courses, one being the Aberdeenshire golf resort which overlooks the site of an 11 turbine wind farm on the North Sea. Mr. Trump before he became President took the Scottish government to court to have the project halted. As the BBC News reported Mr. Trump had argued the wind farm development would spoil the view from his golf course.
The wind farm was first operational last year, and the court case went to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. A ruling from the Court of Session has determined that Mr. Trump must pay the Scottish government’s legal costs in this matter.
Take a look at what Mr. Trump was railing against. The eleven turbines in this project are the most powerful in the world and were developed by the Swedish energy group Vattenfall and the power is being exported to the National Grid.
With a total generating capacity of 93.2 MW, this wind farm produces more than 70 percent of Aberdeen’s electricity , a city with a population of 228,000. Called the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre, the project director stated that this wind farm “reinforces north east Scotland’s status as Europe’s energy capital and will help establish the region as an international centre for offshore wind generation.”
Image: Offshorepost.com
Windmills are noisy, bird chopping and very ugly.
They are optical pollution.
As such they should mainly be installed where it is very VERY empty of human development or onshore.
Of course Mr Trump is right in that they spoil a good golf game due to views and noise. If he has an argument that is legally binding, well, he lost. That doesn’t mean the merits are ok. If you want to develop this golf course further with houses it would certainly not help to have noisy and ugly windmills next door.
Imagine the north shore of Vancouver full of windmills, or ridges on Vancouver Island close to cities, or on Gulf Islands. Is this desirable “green” energy ? Many here, too, would say no !
They make creaking sounds as the nacelles move, and a the blades make a bit of a woosh if you stand right beside the tower. In general, wind is pretty noisy so you don’t hear them that much over the white noise of the wind around you. It’s a strange coincidence that companies put turbines in windy locations.
The ones Trump was suing over are also offshore, which means they’re probably not going to be heard by anyone. The view spoilage however is totally subjective. I for one think they add a really interesting dynamism to a view, when they’re spinning anyways.
You don’t need to go that far afield – just look to Jacqui Cohen having trees chopped down near UBC / Spanish Banks a number of years back.
.. or maybe even the people protesting the B-Line in West Vancouver.
Swedes rule! Eleven to Zero for the objection thing!
We all know that momentum is stored in the atmosphere and can be extracted to produce electricity by use of wind driven generators. Anyone can deploy this technology but it is done to great effect by large scale producers and distributors of electricity. Installation of modern wind turbines by utilities aligns with a greater public goal to improve planetary health. IPH awareness is a social movement found across many communications platforms that now helps to drive expansion of the high technology economy in many different areas.
I lived near a wind farm in Wellington, NZ for 18 months. It’s not true that wind farms are noisy. Hiking trails through the farm are popular, and even right at the base of a windmill you get nothing but a soft whirring. You can still hear your footsteps. Not true that wind farms kill birds. This farm is located near a bird sanctuary. No issues. And no one is more passionate about their native bird species than New Zealanders. Ugly? No. Everyone loves the demonstration turbine located on a hilltop right in the city, and the view of the turbines spread over the hills between the hills in the distance is beautiful.