A wind farm for Milton Keynes - Just what the 4th IPCC report calls for

"You will have seen in national news the release of the summary document of the 4th Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report last weekend. You might have missed the specific mention of a wind farm for Milton Keynes in there. Yet it was there as the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, Achin Steiner called this not just a report to Governments but a Citizen's Charter to taking action on climate change. Supporting the proposed wind farm development to the north of Milton Keynes is exactly the sort of action that Citizens can do to play their role in climate change." says Dr Tim Lunel Chief Executive of the Milton Keynes based National Energy Foundation.

We urge the Councillors and Citizens of Milton Keynes to support this project. We realise they will be visible, and that some people may not like that, but we believe that it is key to make the connection between energy use and energy generation as this lowers energy demand, and what better way to do this than seven wind turbines that will create enough electricity equivalent to up to 9,000 households? By taking this project forward Milton Keynes will be practicing what it preaches about being a modern, forward-thinking city, and that was the call from the IPCC over the weekend.

Of course there are other ways to generate renewable electricity, and we get a great deal of enquiries from the public small scale systems such as solar photovoltaics and roof mounted wind turbines. The NEF encourages everyone to reduce their carbon footprint with these simple small scale measures, but would like to highlight that to get a similar electricity output of the seven wind turbines Milton Keynes Wind Farm would require around 30,000 roof mounted turbines on houses in Milton Keynes. The wind speeds in urban environments tend to be lower and the turbines themselves are much smaller.

If Milton Keynes says no to this wind farm, we're effectively saying no to the call from the IPCC for Citizens to act. So let support of the Milton Keynes Wind Farm be the latest signal to national and international leaders that we are all serious about taking action on climate change.