While we are increasingly familiar with the forces opposed to wind energy – increasingly called the ‘antis’ or BANANAs (build absolutely nothing anywhere near anyone), the WIMBY’s are less well known as a political force.
The following comes from Embrace my Planet, in the UK, and outlines how their pro renewables campaign works.
I am a WIMBY. The fight for renewable energy begins here!
Whilst polls reveal overwhelming support for wind energy – 74% are in favour of increasing it – a staggering 75% of onshore applications are being turned down by planning committees.
WIMBY stands for Wind in My Back Yard. It was influenced by Facebook groups who are already campaigning for wind energy in the UK. For example, more than 37,000 people are already members of groups such as Put a Windfarm in My Backyard if You Like.
The WIMBY campaign will seek to empower people to make the case locally for windfarms in their areas, and to let politicians know that people who support renewable energy are tired of being pushed out of the debate by anti-wind groups.
From this page, you can sign a petition to show your support or email your local representatives to urge them to support the expansion of renewable energy. You can also join the MyPlanet WIMBY group, as well as the Embrace Facebook group.
yes2renewables.org 
These people must be seriously deluded or renters, probably the latter as anyone with enough money to own a property would not want a windfarm next to it or on it.
Or they might be serious farmers who recognise the wind as a valuable resource to be farmed alongside land or water resources? Who value regular rental income that a bank will loan against for upgrade of farming plant? Who appreciate a high quality road networking their property, and improving fire-control access?
They might also want to drought-proof their farm, so they don’t have to suffer the humilitation of losing a family farm that’s been in the family for generations? Or maybe they don’t like putting their hand out for government drought assistance?
Or maybe they just want to do their bit to secure Australia’s energy supply, taking the longview that a free wind energy resource, once harnessed, will ultimately be the cheapest energy source?
Or maybe, just maybe, they have grandchildren and they are concerned at the risk of catastrophic climate change….. that wouldn’t sound delusional to any fair-minded person, would it?
Maybe they dont want to sign contracts from dodgy developers who leave them in the lurch and place all legal liability on them?
Maybe they are bad farmers who need a handout, whats the difference a wind handout? or drought assistance? both comes from the same source.
Maybe they dont want fires starting on their farms due to turbines operating when they should be shut off ?
I really dont get the bit about drought proofing, I bet you have never farmed in your life to say this? a wind turbine does not make it rain, how can it drought proof anything?
Sammy,
i would take the ‘drought proofing’ comment as being about economic drought proofing – ie generating income thats not dependent on agricultural activity (which can – of course – be impacted by conditions like flood, drought, etc).
Sammy, if you’re a booklover I’ve got a great quote for you.
“Tilting at windmills” is an English idiom which means attacking imaginary enemies. The phrase comes from an episode in the Spanish novel ‘Don Quixote’ by Miguel de Cervantes. In the novel, Don Quixote fights windmills that he imagines to be giants, because Quixote sees the windmill blades as the giant’s arms.
You are indeed tilting at windmills. You’re imagining dodgy developers, contractual terms, bad farmers, self-combusting wind turbines, and cityslicker developers in order to support your flimsy argument.
I may love books, Sir, but I also understand and support the farmers that want to make a go of harnessing resources on the land. Those blokes are out there putting the ‘farm’ back in ‘windfarm’ while you’re complaining from the sidelines. Perhaps the real difference between you and them is that while they’re out working their farms, you’re surfing the internet blogs searching for something to complain about.
Tom, if you think im imagining things how would you like to have a look at a contract that was given to family members of mine to sign up?
I have never seen a more disgusting piece of one sided drivel in my life, if the wind farm developer was genuine about signing people up they would have done a better job, i know many families who refused to sign up and thus the wind farm was stopped.
Many of my family members are farmers, they have farmed for many years and have grown their farms and produce clean quality produce, they do not need con men trying to rip them off with dodgy contracts. Please get some facts before you make comment on something you obviously know very little about next time.
I work for a developer Sam. I write the contracts, and I administer the contracts, and I approach farmers in wind-prospective areas to see if they’re interested in developing a project together with us and their neighbours. Everybody gets an upfront payment so they can afford their own independent legal advice before they sign anything, I answer a lot of questions, and I direct people to learn about the windfarms from well-informed and balanced sources. That’s the way we do it, and I’m pretty sure that’s the way the other wind energy developers do it.
So when you blithely accuse people of being ‘con men’ who ‘rip off’ with ‘dodgy contracts’, then you are in fact being insulting to me. So I do indeed know a great deal about this particular subject, and I say to you that your comments are neither accurate nor kind.
Tom, my comments regarding the contract issue are 100% accurate, I know of many people who this wind farm developer tried to sign up around the Ballarat area, over the space of a few years and over 3 prospective wind farms. None of which made it to far.
To say my comments are not accurate is about as trustworthy as the contract that this wind developer was trying to push on farmers, many of who were smart enough to knock it back.
Im sure not all contracts are the same, maybe you could send me a few of the ones you have done, id be very interested to have a look at some others?
Since you write up these contracts why are there so many confidentiallity causes in them? why are the farmers not allowed to talk about the wind farm before the planning applications become public? why are the farmers liable in case of fire? (well they were in the ones ive seen)
and liable in case of noise? I think these issues were the sticking point for most that i know of.
Mate, I’ve already got my work cut out for me with the contracts that need attention, let alone sending them off to ‘interested bystanders’ with an axe to grind!
As for confidentiality, our contracts have a clause that permits a landowner to have access to wind data (data from the monitoring tower) but they are forbidden from sharing that data. The data is valuable and confidential to us, and therefore ought not to be shared with our competitors. It’s a fair clause, it’s a reasonable clause, and it has a defined commercial purpose. There are no other clauses requiring any form of confidentiality.
Thanks for the chat Sammy – I believe I’ve responded pretty reasonably to all the issues you’ve raised for clarification.
I’m not normally a gambling man, Tom, but somehow i reckon a reasonable response from you won’t be sufficient for our esteemed scribe Sammy
Sammy has obviously had a seriously bad experience with a developer. Without naming names it would be great to understand what upset him so much that he has become radicalised against wind energy.
Tom, what would your company do if the landholder decided to share the wind speed data?
Sammy, we’d write a stern letter to their mother.
Another hypothetical: what will you say to your grandchildren when they ask you what support you gave to clean energy back in 2011 – when the tides were lower, the weather less extreme, and people could still rely on making a living from farming the land?
I bet this is about all you would do to Tom, would love to see a wind company try to take legal action against a farmers for disclosing how much wind blows on their farm!
Ill say i tried to use common sense to prevent a scam that would do nothing to reduce the use of fossil fuels.
Are you still active
colin@rainbowenergyassessors.co.uk
If you are join us here please you are welcome!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rainbow-eco-solutions/164629296898243#!/groups/Gdadebate?ap=1
I think it’s odds-on that Sammy is driven more by sour grapes than anything else. He’s admitted he’s not a farmer. He’s obviously never had his livelihood threatened by bad commodity prices, drought, flood or fire. That would explain why he cannot understand farmers taking up the opportunity to boost their income and security from a benign source that doesn’t interfere with their farming operations.