Navitus Bay wind farm refused permission by government
BBC News
11 September 2015
A proposed wind farm off the south coast of England has been refused consent by the government.
Developers behind the Navitus Bay project – for up to 121 turbines off Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight – say it would have provided electricity for up to 700,000 homes.
Opponents said it would damage tourism and was too close to protected coasts.
It is only the second time the Department of Energy and Climate Change has rejected an offshore project.
The £3.5bn Navitus Bay plan, developed jointly by Dutch firm Eneco and French giant EDF Energy A, would have seen up to 121 8MW turbines at 200m (656ft) high constructed.
The Planning Inspectorate spent six months studying the plans, which developers said would contribute £1.6bn to the UK’s economy over 25 years.
MHI Vestas Offshore Wind would have made the 80m-long blades at its factory in Newport on the Isle of Wight – six years after it shut a plant on the island, axing 425 jobs and sparking an 18-day sit-in by workers.
But all surrounding local authorities, except the Isle of Wight Council, were opposed to the scheme, and campaigners feared it would have a negative impact on the area’s tourism industry.
Bournemouth Borough Council had claimed the turbines, 13.3 miles out to sea from the resort, would detract tourists from visiting, risking almost 5,000 local jobs and cause a total economic loss of £6.3bn.
There were also fears it could lead to the loss of the Jurassic Coast’s Unesco World Heritage Status.
The National Trust had also criticised the plans.
Stuart Grant, project director at Navitus Bay, said: “While we are clearly disappointed by today’s decision, we would like to thank the communities of Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight and all our stakeholders for the high level of engagement they’ve shown in the project, including their responses to our consultations and during the examination process.
“We will now discuss the options available with our shareholders and update stakeholders in due course.”
A Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) spokesman said: “Careful consideration has been given to the application, and the planning and energy issues involved.”
The decision letter states there would be a “residual significant adverse impact on the qualities underpinning Dorset and Isle of Wight’s Areas of Natural Beauty”.
It continues: “Conflict between conservation of the significance of heritage assets, including a World Heritage Site, and proposals for development would not be minimised or avoided.
“The very special circumstances required to justify the harm occasioned by inappropriate development in the Green Belt and other harm would not exist, as the benefits would not clearly outweigh the harm identified.”
Navitus Bay joins the proposed Docking Shoal project off the Lincolnshire and Norfolk coastlines, which was also refused consent by the DECC in 2012.
BBC News
The view from a modern (occasionally) wind ‘powered’ home.
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Killing off the greatest rort of all time is a bit like crushing cockroaches, really: a messy, but obviously necessary task.
Before we go any further though, STT feels duty-bound to deal with the same nauseating lie pitched up by the Ministry of Truth, every time a wind farm development gets a mention: viz, “that this project would have powered up to 700,000 homes”. No it wouldn’t.
The hackneyed myth that wind power “powers” millions of homes with wonderful “free” wind energy has been walloped all over the globe (see our post here). It’s a ‘play-book’ special, pedalled by the wind industry, its parasites and spruikers in an effort to beguile the gullible into believing that there’s a real and substantial benefit attached to spearing these things all over the world.
But the idea that a wholly weather dependent power generation source can ever be an “alternative” to conventional generation is, of course, patent nonsense.
If there wasn’t already a complete power generation system built around on-demand sources, such as gas, coal, nuclear or hydro – then a country trying to run on wind power would – unless it was keen to revisit (or remain in) the stone age – inevitably need to build one (see our post here). So far, so insanely costly, and utterly pointless.
At STT the term “powering” means exactly what it says: that when someone – at any time of the day or night – in any and all of the thousands of homes claimed to be “powered” by wind power – flicks the switch the lights go on or the kettle starts boiling.
The wind industry never qualifies its we’re “powering thousands of homes” mantra by saying what it really means: that wind power might be throwing a little illumination or sparking up the kettle in those homes every now and then – and that the rest of time their owners will be tapping into a system of generation that operates quite happily 24 x 7, rain, hail or shine – without which they’d be eating tins of cold baked beans, while sitting freezing (or boiling) in the dark.
The claims about wind power stumping up around the clock have been smashed plenty of times in Texas, Germany, Britain and Australia, too:
- Texas Blames Wind Power Slump on (you guessed it) … the Wind
- Germans Blame “Missing Wind” for their Wind Power Debacle
- Brits Rumble Frightening Energy Fact: Wind Power Depends on the (ur, ahem) Wind …
- The Wind Power Fraud (in pictures): Part 2 – The Whole Eastern Grid Debacle
- South Australia’s Unbridled Wind Power Insanity: Wind Power Collapses see Spot Prices Rocket from $70 to $13,800 per MWh
- Why Wind Power Will Never be a Serious Alternative to Conventional Power Generation
Since David Cameron’s thumping election win, wind power outfits in the UK have been copping a belting on all fronts. Furious communities are gathering strength and fighting back like never before:
Forces Marshall in International Revolt Against the Great Wind Power Fraud
Communities Fight Back & Set the Wind Industry on Fire
In the post above the comment from Stop the Chislet Windfarm committee chairman Dr Ashley Lupin says it all really:
“We are determined this is not going to happen. We local people are not the handful of country bumpkins that you were expecting to walk all over. We are passionate, we are angry and we are organised”.
It’s that kind of ‘in-your-face’ community outrage that will bring the wind power fraud to a screaming halt. Fight and they will flee.
And it’s not just communities, sensible politicians are looking to bring them to account, too – with laws aimed at forcing them to hold sufficient assets to pay multi-million pound damages awards to their victims; and to ensure that there is sufficient money available to clean up the mess when the whole fiasco grinds to a halt sometime in the next decade or so:
David Cameron won an election promising to bring Britain’s wind power fiasco to an end. For hard-pressed Brits, the end can’t come soon enough.
About stopthesethings
STOP THESE THINGS 
I have seen footage of the Vestas blade manufacturing facility on the Isle of Wight.
How can you expect to continue in business if you do not fully test the product that you are manufacturing? Why only partly test your product whilst avoiding any testing for infrasound? It’s a job half done.
If Boeing or Airbus were to only partly test their aircraft, would you fly in them?
Time for the wind industry to take a long hard look at itself. Time to go back to the drawing board. If a fan produces infrasound, then it stands to reason that the bigger you make them, the more infrasound they are going to produce especially at slower speeds. And this is how it has been explained to me, by the people who know. You’ve hit the wall with this design folks. Times up!
And stop stealing terminology from the aviation industry! The wind industry can only dream of the success that is modern aviation. And unlike the seemingly stagnant wind industry, aviation is evolving all the time.
The Wind Fraud can no longer hide. Governments are waking up to the economic and environmental nonsense of Bigwind.
Thanks to your insights, to be sure, STT.