Bray Shop under attack

Posted on May 30, 2013 by mabrake

The plight of the villagers of Bray Shop and the surrounding area has been brought to my attention by one of its residents and the situation is as follows:-

Trefinnick Farm. PA12/07093. This is an already approved 5mW solar farm.

Trefinnick. PA13/03358. Planning application for 77m to Tip, Wind Turbine by Murex/Aarvaark.

Trefinnick. PA13/02844. Planning application for 77m to Tip, Wind Turbine by Murex/Aardvaark.

Glebe Farm, Trefinick Road. PA13/00732. Planning application for 77m to Tip, Wind Turbine by Capture Energy Ltd.

If anyone can support the residents of this area please log on to the Cornwall County Council site and add your submissions to the above planning applications. A local meeting is being held I understand tonight (30th May 2013) but I have no further details at this time.

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Wind Turbine Application for South Tawton – 00512/2013

Posted on May 29, 2013 by mabrake

Murex/Aardvark have submitted an application to erect a 67m (Ground to Tip) 500kW wind turbine at SX664 950. This location is only 400m from the Dartmoor National Park Boundary! The grid location is given as the site has no specific name although it is close to Quarry Farm but not on that land.

Full details may be found by accessing the WDBC web site and follow the Planning Applications to 00512/2013.

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Letter to Tavistock Times – Renewable Energy and West Devon Borough Council.

Posted on May 28, 2013 by mabrake

In case you didn’t see this the following letter was printed by the Tavistock Times last week and was written by our Chairman Dr G. Vanstone:-

Renewable Energy and WDBC

For over two years now MABRAKE have been asking West Devon Borough Council to introduce a policy on large renewable energy installations. Now English Heritage in their response to application 00063/2013 are also calling on WDBC to have a ‘wider strategy’ for renewable energy before it approves more installations. WDBC quite rightly has policies on where it is appropriate to have new housing and factory/warehouse developments but it has no such policy on the appropriate areas for renewable energy installations including the distance from residential properties and how many should be allowed in anyone area. With the large subsidies available predictably the number of applications increase and each one is considered on a piecemeal basis. Within a few miles of Milton Abbot we now have one solar farm installed, one in appeal and two in scoping, a total of over 60 acres. We have approved applications for two turbines, another 77m turbine installed and three other turbines of this size the subject of current applications. Many of these installations will be visible from Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor and from the Tamar Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. They are all also situated close to residential and historic buildings.

In neighbouring Torridge 54 applications have been lodged and many have been approved on appeal. This massive expansion in applications has meant that Geoffrey Cox, our MP, has come out against all future Wind Farm applications in Torridge and West Devon. Unless West Devon Borough Council develop a policy for these installations then we will see many more and the creeping industrialisation of the countryside will continue. We are all in favour of increased renewable energy output and we in MABRAKE have supported environmentally sensitive installations, but without a clear policy to restrict future installations we shall be ruining the very countryside that the reduction in CO2 is meant to protect.

Wake up WDBC, it is time to act!

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Britain in pledge to halve greenhouse gas emissions – Sunday Telegraph

Posted on May 28, 2013 by mabrake

Britain in pledge to halve greenhouse gas emissions

Jonathan Leake, Environment Editor Published: 26 May 2013

Ed Davey: energy challengeEd Davey: energy challenge (Richard Pohle)

BRITAIN will slash its carbon emissions by up to 50% by 2030 in a deal that would transform the nation’s energy and transport systems, under proposals announced today.

Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat energy secretary, drew up the pledges after weeks of tough negotiations with the Treasury, where he had to overcome its deep scepticism over such green target setting.

The package would see the UK cutting carbon emissions by 50% compared with 1990, when the country emitted 770m tons of CO2.

Britain’s emissions have since fallen to 572m tons, a 26% decline, but achieving the further 200m tons needed to meet the target will still be a huge challenge, especially for the power and transport sectors which will have to take the brunt of the changes.

Davey’s target is the centrepiece of a package to be put to the European Union and which would apply to all its members.

“The decarbonisation of the EU economy is fundamental to tackling climate change. We will argue for an EU-wide binding emissions reductions target of 50% by 2030,” Davey said.

“We will need significant levels of renewable energy and other low-carbon technologies to meet such an ambitious 2030 EU target. The UK is committed to increasing renewables in our own domestic energy mix.”

A key caveat is that the 50% target will apply across the EU only if a successful treaty emerges from the United Nations-sponsored global climate talks in 2015. If these fail the EU would adopt a lower target of a 40% reduction in emissions. But Davey is expected to make clear that Britain will aim to meet the 50% target anyway.

Since Britain’s demand for power will also grow, it means Davey’s pledge can be achieved only by a massive expansion of low-carbon power generation, almost certainly meaning new nuclear power stations, plus many thousands more wind turbines.

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IEA warns Germany on soaring green dream costs – Telegraph

Posted on May 26, 2013 by mabrake

 

IEA warns Germany on soaring green dream costs – Telegraph.

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