I like wind farms. But the Environment Court was right to put the kybosh on Project Hayes.
Meridian Energy wanted to put 176 wind turbines on the wild and remote Lammermoor Range in Central Otago, New Zealand. If the project had gone ahead, it would've generated 630 MW of clean electricity. It would also have damaged the local environment and spoiled the look of the tussock-clad range.
We need more wind farms, along with solar plants, to make use of a renewable resource, to generate clean electricity, and to reduce carbon emissions by replacing dirty energy with clean. Just not at any cost. Wind farms involve the industrialization of a landscape. That's ok when the landscape is already industrialized or otherwise heavily modified by man - what are called 'brownfield' sites. Meridian's Project West Wind, a wind farm in the hills behind Wellington, NZ, is located in an area that is intensively farmed and criss-crossed with grid transmission lines.
But it's not ok when we're talking about wild and unspoiled landscapes. In the industrialized world there aren't that many left, and those that remain should be left alone. Instead, we need to make better use of the many brownfield sites that surround our cities and towns.

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