STATE tourism agency Failte Ireland looks set to survey tourists about their attitudes to wind farms, amid concerns that wind turbines may put tourists off holidaying in Ireland. The move as a vocal though small anti-wind lobby is emerging in Ireland and in other countries, which have been branded by the wind industry as Nimbys (not in my back yard).
Paddy Matthews, Failte Ireland's environmental unit manager, said the agency was not anti-wind farms but was "concerned in some cases about the location of them".
Matthews said, however, that Failte Ireland was particularly concerned about the possibility of three offshore wind farms on the east coast of Ireland: Arklow Bank wind farm, Codling Wind Park off Bray and the Kish bank off the Dublin coast.
"We're particularly concerned about the cumulative visual impact of all three. No study has been down on that and it is not really in keeping with good practice."
He said that in general, however, Failte Ireland had no difficulty with wind farms "as long as they are not in an area of high scenic amenity".
The format of the Failte Ireland survey will be similar to a Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI) survey in 2003, which found that 66% of those surveyed would be in favour of having a wind farm built in their local area.
However, there have been several longrunning anti-wind campaigns in Ireland, including the Save Kilbraney campaign, which successfully fought against a wind farm development at Kilbraney, Co Wexford.
According to the campaign's chairperson, Annette Colfer, local residents were concerned about the visual impact of the wind farm as well as the noise the turbines would make and the 'shadow flicker' effect, where the turbines cast rapidly flickering shadows on the ground around them.
"We are not opposed to wind farms but we want to see them located in areas where they don't interfere with people's day-to-day lives. Why do we not build more offshore?"
She said that, in the case of her house, the proposals would have meant it was surrounded on three sides by wind turbines, the closest of which was 450 metres away.
"It would have industrialised what is a rural area."
Colfer said her organisation was prepared to fight future proposals for wind farms in her area but denied that she was a Nimby. "We've always considered ourselves as NIABYs . . . not in anyone's backyard . . . it isn't an all or nothing. There are other forms of renewable energy. Wind isn't the be all and end all."
However, John Quinn, managing director of Surface Power, which sells small wind turbines to businesses, said the campaigners were looking at things from the wrong perspective.
"It's not a wind turbine or nothing, it's a wind turbine or an incinerator or nuclear power plant, " he said. "You have to ask the people objecting to wind farms where will all their energy come from after peak oil passes . . . you'll have the same people berating the ESB for blackouts in the future that result from their objections today.
"I believe that the communities that don't want wind farms should be the first place incinerators are put, " Quinn added.
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