Yes I do agree I think both ways the French I think are mostly nuclear powered but then we had them letting off their nuclear bombs in the Pacific causing earthquakes in the region etc...they apologised the other week...Chernobyl was just awful and of course Three Mile Island in the US...It's hard to know what to do but whatever it is it must be clean...they can do it quickly but they won't just rather toddle on with the same old...I did say though when it came to nuclear energy that every thing must be properly done and supervised and also to add transparent to the public...I think wind turbines are the way really but so many are against them even here in Oz where they could be placed where people would never see them...

No Judith, I'm not a fan either; there have been too many near misses and disposing of the residue is awfully difficult and dangerous. One plant near us which is being decommissioned had numerous minor leaks and the entire shore is contaminated. I too remember Chernobyl. We didn't get it too bad but I remember cows in Wales being kept indoors and milk sales were banned because of fallout on the grass. I'm sure one day there will be research into increased cancer rates or something when that young generation get older. My son's 21 so he just missed it. But our government is now all set to build more nuclear plants seeing it as the only way forward.

Can't say that I am in favour of nuclear energy. I haven't forgotten Chernobyl. I was five months pregnant with my youngest and I can well remember the worry then. We had to keep the children indoors as much as possible I had to shower myself and the children each time we had been outside. No fresh milk until we went down to N.Italy (Tyrol) where I discovered the cows hadn't been let out of their barns yet and had only had hay from the year before. I don't think Britain was as affected as we were in Bavaria. PS My son is aa healthy 22 year old now!

My painting of the wind farm (part of it) is on http://www.painters-online.co.uk/gallery/album.asp?id=4324 the album is called village.

Looking forward to a turbine-rich landscape in your gallery...

Solar energy is great if you have lots of sun we have natural gas for water and cooking...our last 2 houses had solar hot water which was there when we bought the houses the trouble is that after a shower the electric booster goes on and the Government installed a new power station not run in our natural gas but coal...so what's the point...there are people who have solar panels installed when building and sell extra power back to the grid but it all sounds great but they will never recoup the money they put into it...I know I'll probably cause an uproar but properly built and managed nuclear is the cleanest energy and the least intrusive...where I lived in Cheshire we had Capenhurst just a stones throw away from Chester most people didn't even know it was there and that was the 60's don't know if they still use it...mention that here and you get stoned then know one will speak to you because they think you've gone mad...mind you in my case...wind here would be great we have lots of empty coast where they could put them and there is always plenty of wind...but although the Gov promise lots they go for coal...I just don't get it...the uni I went to has wind turbines and use the methane from the vet farm and this provides 75% of their power now I think that's great...mind you they have a big sustainable energy department in the physics section which is where I learnt about the nuclear...gone off again havn't I...I wonder why we have Governments at all they don't listen any more don't much care either when they get into power and they give themselves big raises in pay when they tell pensioners that they can only have $4 a week raise because the public purse is empty...finished for now I think...sorry Diana didn't mean to hi-jack your blog but this is such a good debate

I don't know the exact number; it was in the paper last week- somewhere between 25 and 35 I think. They now need to replace them with a smaller number of larger ones as these are now so old they can't get the blades any more. There's another windfarm just over the valley too. I had a friend who lived in the closest house to them; about 1/4 mile away and they heard nothing. I suspect they are cheaper than fitting every house with solar panels. Our neighbur just had some fitted and we worked out that even with a 50% grant, it will take him over 60 years to recoup the cost in his energy bills. Another neighbour just had his own little turbine fitted on his roof. Don't know the figures on that though. No problem with the double post; I deleted one of them for you.

Sorry that went on twice!

Okay , how many turbines do you actually have up there, Diane? Travelling on the north German coast last year where there are hundreds ( well it seemed like that , I don't know how many really) they did seem like a blot on the landscape and I'm not sure I would be pleased if they were erected right next door to where I live - but of course they do a good job ( do they? ) I would have thought we should be following solar energy - i.e each house has its roof full of solar panels. No extra buildings and no eyesores. This is no way an educated opinion, just what I feel.

I'm not getting into this argument otherwise I'll go on and on...most of our Government stuff is solar powered with little solar collectors for each item we also have wind turbines but not a lot...I'll leave it there...nice to here that your weather cleared and you were able to get out to take some photos...I like your description of the turbines...I feel that objections come because we get things whether we like it or not over here there is little notice taken of what the voter wants we just get it...it's like a nanny state telling us what to do how to do it what we shouldn't do ride your bike is the latest I can't and around the corner in Oz could be 300 kms away...they can burger off...they get picked up in their taxpayer funded cars...there you go I got started

Wow someone-else who likes the elegant modern windmills...I'm pleased to have you on board too...we have yet to find any crashed military jets or dead-birds in the vicinity of 'our turbines'...though due to a faulty sensor there was an ice shedding incident...we find more corpses of stupid pheasants [the region's most clue-less bird] on the road-side than under the turbines...but many of these turbines, for most of the year, on the fens they are very still...

I stand corrected; birds do fly into them but statistically the occurrence is minute compared with collisions with cars, pylons, tall buildings etc.The National Wind Coordinating Committee (NWCC) completed a comparison of wind farm avian mortality with bird mortality caused by other man-made structures in the U.S. "while wind farms are responsible for the deaths of some birds, when put into the perspective of other causes of avian mortality, the impact is quite low. In other words, bird mortality at wind farms, compared to other human-related causes of bird mortality, is biologically and statistically insignificant. There is no evidence that birds are routinely being battered out of the air by rotating wind turbine blades as postulated by some in the popular press."

Research has proven that birds rarely fly into them; the air displaced by the turbines pushes the birds away. There is less risk than with an aeroplane. Our windfarm has been in situ for over 20 years and has had no long term impact on the environment. The initial erection caused a mess but the land regenerated in less than a year;far less damage than open cast mining caused. The wildlife and birdlife up there is exactly as it was before. Foxes, deer,badgers, rabbits, stoats and weasels abound; sheep graze around them and only this afternoon I saw a kestrel, rooks, starlings,crows, various tits, and a buzzard and I was only there 15 minutes.. I was right under a turbine and only heard a dull humming noise. The company who built one several miles away last year did a full environmental impact survey. There's too much opposition for them not to.

Funny, I loathe wind farms and the damage they do to the environment. If you are a migrating bird the last thing you need at the end of a long flight is to fly into a giant mincer. JUST USE LESS ELECTRICITY! Funny because I was thinking of doing a painting of the coastline obliterated by turbines, with the title 'Not Waving but Drowning'. Catchy, eh?

It's nice to hear of someone supporting the windfarms i believe in them as well for the job they do. Can't wait to see your interpretation.