I spotted this tonight..

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Wind farm 'kills Taiwanese goats'

I don't suppose anyone watched The BBC News tonight? They showed the latest windfarm that has opened, I believe in Scotland. They are saying in order to supply enough electricity for The UK they need 600 the same size which would amount to a land plot the size of Wales.
Looking at them and seeing this was thought provoking especially as by chance this evening I met an old friend who is an engineer for a company that makes machinary to centrifuge (?spelling) sewerage (possible spelling problem again) across the UK. I think for the first time in 3 or so years I actually listened to what he said about the process. I don't mean to sound shallow, its just not the nicest thoughts that are provoked when one mentions sewerage.I think he was quite suprised to find my interest for obvious reasons. Anyway, does anyone know that the end product is a dry, odourless fertiliser? Well, yes, I sort of did. What I didn't realise is that this is virtually thrown away into landfills because it is copious. It sells for virtual peanuts to farmers as organic fertiliser but the volume created out weighs the demand. In Scotland they have been using it to generate powerstations to make electricity but the EU have said they can't unless it is fired up to 300 degrees C to incinerate it. That is no good if you want to 'slow burn' to generate electricity. How stupid are we? Its our waste, our end product and it makes perfect sense to use it for something like this.
I'd rather invest in finding an emissionable way of using it to do something like that than to see acres of land filled up with those awful whirly things going on and on in banal infinity.

Employ those hamsters- dynamo power No really, it is all so confusing. The 'don't use this, better use that' lobby all articulate what's best from each of thier own perspectives. At the end of the day. The Industrial revolution in the 1830s was the beginning of our modern 'convenience living' attitude to life and the way we live it. We either have another 'Revolution' or we accept we've been over zealous in the use of our resources which back then were plentiful and still being disvcovered, or we seek to find new ones that fit in with modern life. Getting 'all' to accept and reign in from what I see is a hiding to nothing, so investment into new resources has to be the way to go. The problem is again, how do you get everyone onboard the same train? but I'll get over it

NZ also uses hydro power - 40 out of 60 stations. Of interest the world's second geothermal power station was built in Wairekei, NZ - the first one was in Italy.

New Zealand Windfarms Google Map Mashup

There are more than I ever imagined. The Tararua Ranges have been very productive as the amount of wind required to run them effectively is available.

Wind and solar power - Wind energy in New Zealand - Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand

That doesn't take away the fact that they are every bit as ugly as the aerial farm outside of Rugby. Equally ugly are the enormous power pylons that straddle the landscape carrying power to various parts of the country. The pylons being one of those necessary evils unless someone comes up with a more viable and aesthetically pleasing way of doing so.

They are ugly and I believe I have read a mixed view on the efficiency they provide. It seems areas that gain most from them are either large land plots which do not affect the people who live by them or they are out to sea. New Zealand seems to use a few- Palmerston North seems to have some. Maybe a look at the NZ energy resources website may help? I don't know but a look at areas which have invested in them may yield some further idea.

Isn't there a "field of aerials" down that way too?

Plans have been submitted for a windfarm in Rugby, it sounds like this is the start of several that could be rolled out across the county.

Wind farm plans officially handed over - Rugby Today - Back to Home Page

Personally, I've heard little that is good about Wind-Farms. Apart from the fact that they are amazingly ugly, they are supposedly pretty uneffecient. I'd hope someone could correct me about that, because I could at least view them as a necessary evil that way. They really do ruin any landscape completely.