The onshore wind energy industry is under threat from Tory plans designed to arrest the spread of turbines. But do people really dislike them that much?
“Look at the energy efficiency of this.” John Zamick, 57, stands beneath a single wind turbine in a field near Swindon. “I stand here in awe. This is unbelievable magic. It’s money from thin air.” “Thick air,” says his colleague, Bob Carnell, 60. Unabashed, Zamick continues. “That tower is 40 tons of steel. But it’s an eggshell. It’s 10mm thick at the top, at the bottom, 20mm.”
Zamick’s company, DistGen, has six turbines in the UK and is raising crowdfunded investment in order to finish another one, in Cumbria. Shortly afterwards, we cross a door marked Danger of Death, into the turbine itself, a tiny round room full of grey boxes, that looks like an advert for joining the army. “I don’t think you’d be in this business unless you’re a true believer. And I am a believer. But I came from an engineering and business background. I’m not a hippie.”
It makes me feel optimistic just looking at it. It gives me hope for the future.