So what’s the connection between stars in a clear night sky, and wind turbines? I would have thought very little. A strong wind turning the blades may cause some stars to be blown off course? But a fuss has broken out because stargazers, astronomers if you will, have issued dire warnings that Britain’s only “Dark Sky Park” is being threatened by applications for wind turbines.
For the uninitiated, a Dark Sky Park is an area free from light pollution where you can gaze in wonder through a telescope of the naked eye, at the panoply of the heavens. The area in question, Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park in Scotland, secured its status in 2009. However the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, the John Muir Trust (piggy-backed with the Scottish Wild Land Group) have written to the Scottish government, asking it to refuse any applications for wind farms in the vicinity. There have been nine proposals for the siting of turbines near the Park.
It seems that so far only one application has been approved, but that has got the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Scottisg Dark Sky Observatory in a lather, fearing other approvals could follow. Not sao much NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) but NIODS (Not In Our Dark Sky).
The dispute is between those who say that due to Ministry of Defence regulations and Aviation Authority Safety procedures, the turbines must be lit at night and those who say that any lighting requirements would not affect star visibility.
Galloway Park is the only Dark Sky Park in Britain and is home to the world’s only publicly accessible, research-grade observatory within a Gold Tier Dark Sky Park. Rather ironically, the observatory was officially opened by First Minister Alex Salmond last year, he long being a drum-banger for renewable energy and having opened many new wind farms in Scotland.
Prof John Brown, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, said:
“Installing any large structures that require illumination (whether visible or infra-red) would be akin to putting a factory in Glen Coe or electricity pylons along the Cuillin Ridge. Our first minister was instrumental in helping to secure funding for the observatory and he opened it with much passion and aplomb in October last, praising Scotland for leading the world with this fine public and educational facility. But Mr Salmond is also an ardent advocate of wind farms and so faces a dilemma. I, for one, would call upon him now to prove his sincere interest in our wild lands and skies by ensuring wind farms and other dark sky contaminants are excluded from the entire Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park.”
But will infra red or other spectrum light really interefere with the darkness of the sky and pollute the Park?
Jeremy Sainsbury of the renewable energy consultancy, Natural Power, thinks not. He has said that studies had shown that the type of beacons used did not contribute in any significant way to light pollution. The low level background infra-red is only visible to pilots and does not penetrate the upper atmosphere. It is very localised to the turbines and will not leak away to anywhere near the Park. He says studies have proved this to be the case.
There is a suspicion that opponents of wind turbines in Scotland have spread fear and loathing among the astronomer community and fanned the flames of opposition, ignoring the results of studies that show the dark sky of the Park will remain dark if and when the turbines are erected. Starry starry nights can continue, along with windy nights and when the astronomers retire back home, they can enjoy renewable wind energy to power their places. Strikes me as a win-win(d) situation.
A decision will be taken next year.
