In his letter, Alexander Bonello cultivates a nice line in exaggeration in his writing on the proposed wind farm at Bahrija (TMIS, 14 June). Unfortunately, he ends up by shooting himself in both feet; I say unfortunately because while he does have a case to make for changes in the proposed wind farm design, he does not have much of a leg to stand on for the complete demolition job he has in fact attempted.
What are described as “the huge negative impacts on the health and well-being of nearby residents”, on “the livelihoods of many farmers”, on “the people of Wied Rini, Bahrija, and Landrijiet”, and on “the thousands that visit on weekends and public holidays for picnics, walks and drives (sic)”, need to be looked at. Taken at face value, they foretell a national disaster. So to get some of these horrific prospects in perspective, I spent the morning yesterday week walking over the whole area of the proposed wind farm.
The numerous 45m high trellis masts, now disused and falling into decay, provided the first striking visual impact. The next and near-fatal impact came from a heavy truck loaded with construction waste coming down the narrow country road. It disappeared over a slight rise in the direction of the wind farm site. On the south side of the rise, there was extensive dumping of construction waste on the garigue. Dotted around were a few piles of soil, as if to suggest that all that was going on there was the reclamation of garigue for agricultural purposes – a well-known illegal activity pursued in the face of Mepa enforcement orders.
Out on the main garigue area, between the GO plc mast and the Imtahleb chapel, the piles of construction waste had taken on the grey colour of the general landscape; but their presence was often marked by patches of bamboo – surely not a plant native to garigue. That apart, the indicated (which should not be the final) positions of 10 out of the 12 turbines were not close to any residence – unless the large number of trapping and hunting hides dotted around were inhabited. Taking Mr Bonello’s value of 100 dB(A) as the source noise of a 50m diameter rotor, two such rotors separated by 200m will generate 45 dB(A) (the accepted noise level in a house) on a circle of 250m radius centred on the mid-point between them, which is well short of Mr Bonello’s “300m from households”, even if one accepts both distance and presence of households. From the positions given in the application, none of these 10 will provide any serious disturbance in any household. I would suggest that not even rotor 11 will annoy anyone; but rotor 12 is probably misplaced, as it will annoy one or two households and the greenhouse operators, who might already be sorely tried by the go-cart track (any Mepa permit for that?) beyond the southern boundary of the wind farm.
Shadow flicker is more difficult to predict. For rotors facing northwest, a low sun will throw blade shadows 300m from the rotors for brief periods around sunrise and sunset. After that, blade shadow will move towards the turbine base. Of course, those thousands picnicking in Bahrija every weekend might be annoyed occasionally.
To turn to Bonello’s final objection: this wind farm will produce a mere 0.8 per cent of our electricity requirements; so why not do away with it altogether? That point can be answered on different levels. The rhetorical level would ask whether Bonello would tolerate a larger wind farm. For instance, one with 24 turbines slightly smaller than those in the present proposal would provide 2.5 per cent of our electricity generation. Would Bonello find that acceptable? I think not. On the other hand, the fuel cost avoided by the proposed farm would be e3.3million per annum, which Bonello may consider as peanuts and certainly not worth the “sacrifice of lives and livelihoods”. And I would agree with him on that score. Only, I have yet to be persuaded that lives and livelihoods or countryside and agriculture are at any serious at risk here.
Prof. E. A. Mallia
ATTARD