Mike Neaverson: Energy crisis sparks need for wind power

I’ve got wind issues.

The government’s recent flip-flop on the subject of on-shore turbines has frustrated me greatly, and there’s no need for a sandal-clad, chickpea-eating environmentalist to help explain why.

See also: Mike Neaverson – potato sector is at tipping point

About the author

Mike Neaverson

News opinion writer

Mike Neaverson is a potato grower and independent agronomist from South Lincolnshire. After a spell in farm management, he set up his own business in 2017 and is also heavily involved with his family’s 300ha arable farm.

Read more articles by Mike Neaverson

I am a big user of energy for potato storage and grain drying.

Our annual electricity bill – which a couple of years ago couldn’t quite buy a new car – can now buy a small house. Investment in on-farm renewables now stacks up financially.

I am going to install a roof full of solar panels.

However, my usage and generation will be so mismatched in the dark days of winter that the contribution to my bill will be like a minor flatulence in the proverbial hurricane of demand.

Wind power would be a much better fit.

So I’d like to build a medium-sized turbine next to our yard in the famed beauty spot of the Lincolnshire Fens.

The sort of thing that costs £60k and could power a small hamlet, not a city. 

No one overlooks the proposed site, and it’s not as if there isn’t a precedent locally. If it wasn’t for a few trees in the way, you could see 17 much larger turbines. 

We are in an energy supply crisis. The taxpayer (us) is subsidising our own energy bills to the tune of £60bn.

And polling shows much increased support for on-shore wind turbines, even among the government’s core voters. 

I presented the case for pre-planning advice to the council.

Its reply? I’m giving you an abridged version here, so to paraphrase: “The proposed site is within an open field with uninterrupted views from a tiny rural lane. It is not suitable in policy terms.”

No problem, then, it would seem, if you want to build a wind turbine below the treeline in a forest, or in a windless valley.  

It’s another example of this government’s anti-growth agenda, and arguing against this guff will be a windy hill that I will die on.

Which, incidentally, is somewhere you’d never be able to build a bloody turbine either.