Callanais

Last year my partner and I had a wonderful holiday in the Western Isles. We were shocked to hear of the proposal to develop industrial scale windfarms on the island of Lewis (381 wind turbines in total, including over 100 on the Eisgein Estate, each 125 m high, covering an area of 78.3km². Every turbine will have a foundation and hard standing area 45m x 65m cut out of the hillside. There will be 77km of roads wide enough for heavy plant, 22 quarries and 10 construction/batching compounds). The development will irretreviably damage the unspolt environment and the natural beauty of the area. The elctricity produced by this development wouldn't be used locally but exported to the mainland, meaning that pylons would need to be built across the island. I'm all in favour of small scale windfarms built and owned by local communities, who can then benefit from the electricity generated (there's a very good one on the island of Gigha). However the propsed development in Lewis is appalling! Mointeach gun Mhuileann (Moorland without Windmills) is a campaigning group opposing the proposed industrial windfarms and encouraging sustainable, renewable energy developments for the Western Isles. Visit: http://mwtlewis.org.uk for details.

(This item also appears at my website: http://julietwilson.mysite.wanadoo-members.org.uk/. The photo is by my partner.)