LOCALS fear giant wind turbines will spoil the views in their home town and are turning down compensation payments worth £5,000.
Some farmers hope to make £100,000 per year profits from the generators while neighbours and friends have rejected £5,000 compensation payments. Micro Turbine Generator
The proposed wind farm has torn the community apart and led to trouble at the school gates.
One mum feared her car was going to be "bricked" at the local primary school.
Roads around the village of Hundred House in Powys,Wales, are littered with signs and posters protesting against the Nant Mithil scheme to build 36 wind turbines 250 metres high - the same height as London’s Shard.
One landowner, too afraid to be named, said: “It has become very confrontational and it’s splitting families apart.
“Some people have signed to get £100,000-a-year for having a wind generator - you can’t blame them.
“But others have been offered a one-off payment of £5,000 compensation for having a pylon near their homes and they are turning that down.”
The power struggle is being waged in Mid Wales where Scottish company Bute Energy wants to build a wind farm and hundreds of pylons connecting it to the national grid.
Roads around the village of Hundred House in Powys are littered with signs and posters protesting against the Nant Mithil scheme to build 36 wind turbines 250 metres high - the same height as London’s Shard.
Farmers are furious that after being told to diversify into tourism their country cottages and campsites will no longer be attractive to holidaymakers.
The Barstow family who turned their 500-acre farm into a five-star all-year-round campsite 30 years ago are now fearing for its future.
Mum-of-two Natalie Barstow, 43, said: “All we’ve got to trade on is the great outdoors - that’s why people come here.
“But will they still come if the campsite is surrounded by giant wind turbines and electricity pylons?
“It’s not just the visual aspect - we are really concerned about noise. Not just from the wind turns but humming from the pylons.”
One side of their Fforest Fields site is sheltered by a 350 wooded hill, now destined to have 700ft wind turbines sitting along the top.
On the other side, a man-made lake enjoyed by wild swimmers and paddle-boarders will be blighted by 12 pylons and overhead cables.
Natalie’s husband Will, 44, whose family have owned and farmed the land for three generations, said: “Families are being torn apart by this and it has split communities.
“Some people have signed up to have a turbine on their land, others to have pylons. Their neighbours are furious about it, there is a lot of ill-feeling.
“I’m not interested in compensation - how do you compensate for ruining one of the most beautiful parts of the UK?”
Will’s sister Jessie Hutchings, 37, who works at the site said: “We had some people come here from Bute Energy and even they were shocked by the scale of what’s planned.
“This is not Nimbyism - if this goes ahead it will affect many communities across Wales.”
Locals fear Radnor Forest, home to red kites, lapwing, curlew, otters and rare wild flowers, doesn’t have the infrastructure to construct and maintain the 36 turbines.
They are in favour of renewable energy but say wind farms belong offshore and cross-country electricity cables should be buried underground.
More than 400 worried people attended a public meeting at the Royal Welsh Showground earlier this year and groups were set up to campaign against the turbines and pylons.
MPs and members of the Welsh Government have written to Ofgem urging them not to give Bute Energy an Independent Distribution Network Operator’s License.
Ross Evans of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales said: “Bute Energy, who have no experience and no assets in this field, are trying to become the biggest player in Wales.
“They’ve gone in very heavy-handed and are trying to build their own transmission network through the backdoor.
“They claim to have 25 per cent of people signed up although I sincerely doubt it - but it’s caused a level of anger in the community.
“I’ve heard there has been friction in family units - we’ve had solicitors look at the contracts they’ve signed which give Bute Energy access to their land in perpetuity.”
A spokesperson for Bute Energy said:"At Bute Energy, we’re making the Welsh weather work for Wales, developing onshore wind and solar farms and the grid infrastructure needed to support them that will help achieve Government
"Net Zero targets, heat homes, power businesses, and charge Electric Vehicles. Onshore wind is one of the most cost-effective choices for new electricity in the UK – cheaper than gas, nuclear, coal and other renewables. This will reduce our reliance on imported fossil fuels.
“The Nant Mithil Energy Park could generate around 237MW of clean, green energy in the Radnor Forest area.
"An initial round of public consultation was completed in Autumn 2022, and we currently expect the next round of public consultation, ahead of a submission of an application for a Development of National Significance to the Welsh Government, later in 2023.
“Green GEN Cymru, part of the Bute Energy group, is proposing Green GEN Towy Usk, a renewable energy network which will link Nant Mithil Energy Park – and a number of other Energy Parks in the early assessment and feasibility stage, to the National Grid at a point near Carmarthen.
"The project could reduce pressure on the existing electricity grid, supporting green businesses and enabling green heating and the roll out of electric vehicles across rural Wales.
"An initial round of public consultation ended in April 2023. All feedback received will be carefully considered, along with assessments from environmental and technical surveys, ahead of the next round of public consultation – expected in early 2024.
“Together, the projects will empower rural communities through investment, jobs and skills, enabling communities across Wales to live modern electric lives, and support the Welsh Government’s target for electricity to be 100% renewable by 2035.
“We know people have differing views on new infrastructure.
"But across Wales, there’s broad agreement that renewable energy has an important part to play in responding to the climate emergency.”
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