Energy from the Surrey Hills: Wind and Wood?

This is my report of the second Science Festival event I went to in Guildford recently.  It was billed in the festival programme as follows. 

Do we need wind turbines to tackle climate change or is their impact on our greatly valued landscapes a too high a price to pay? Join us to discuss whether we should invest in other sources of renewable energy like wood fuel?  

The advertising poster had a picture of the Surrey Hills alarmingly dotted with several wind turbines so I expected an angry meeting with lots of local people protesting about ruining our local landscape.  In fact it was not like this at all.  There were three main speakers who between them made a strong case for developing wind and wood as renewable energy sources.  Amongst the points made were:

• The South East Area Plan requires 25 wind turbines to be constructed in the region
• Most of the region has an adequate wind speed for wind farms
• There are ample wood resources in the UK – much waste wood presently goes to landfill
• Modern wood stoves are 80-90% efficient and can be used in smokeless zones.

However all three speakers spoke generally and did not mention Surrey Hills.  I tried to ask whether anyone had studied possible renewable energy sites across the South East and knew how Surrey Hills compared with rival sites, but did not get the chance.  I can only assume no-one has done such a study yet.

There were also three others on the panel who were asked questions about what they’d heard.  One was a leading farmer from the Surrey NFU who impressed me a lot.  He said Surrey’s agricultural land is under-used at present and Surrey needs an agricultural renaissance, and he wants to see anaerobic digesters installed to treat farm waste sustainably.  He bemoaned all the objections to proposals like this.  The other two were local politicians.  Perhaps predictably they didn’t attempt to challenge the speakers, but just said that Surrey Hills is the wrong place.  There were lots of questions from the audience and I was pleased and surprised that most were hostile to this NIMBY attitude.

I came away none the wiser about whether there are any serious proposals for renewable energy projects on the Surrey Hills.  The meeting probably gave a good foretaste though of the battle that will break out if we propose a good renewable energy project in Ashtead.

Derek Smith