These enormous wind turbine projects would damage Wales – and all to supply the rest of the UK with energy |
Yes, the world is getting hotter, and yes, Britain should produce more renewable energy. But what should be the price of that principle?
The Cambrian mountains in mid-Wales are the national park that never was. In the 1950s, when the official designations were declared, Wales was awarded Snowdonia, the Pembrokeshire coast and the Brecon Beacons. The Cambrians were larger and grander than the Beacons, but less accessible and therefore less important. Three parks were thought enough for Wales.
That omission is about to lead to disaster. The lifting of the ban on onshore wind turbines by the energy minister, Ed Miliband, has had a swift outcome. The Cambrians’ near-500 square miles of mountain and moorland are the wildest landscape in Britain, at least south of Scotland’s Highlands. For wildness, they dwarf Dartmoor or the Peak District. Virtually devoid of habitation or roads, they stretch from the heights of Plynlimon opposite Snowdonia to the Pembroke border in the........