One down...

A wind turbine has collapsed in strong winds which swept across Devon on Saturday night. 

No-one was reported injured after the 27m (89ft) high turbine came down in a field at Higher Rixdale Farm at Luton, near Teignmouth.

...how many more to go?

There's something we didn't have so many of in 1987. I recently heard an expert on the radio explaining that  turbines were quite safe as they could withstand wind speeds of up to 80mph. Since the Met Office is warning of gusts in excess of that this weekend, things could start getting interesting.

Once the wind gets up, the things are only as safe as the bolts holding 90-odd feet of steel to the ground in a howling gale - or the braking systems that, in theory, stop them fizzing themselves to death in a glorious burst of flame.

Remember, folks, 'Red sky at night; turbine's alight'.


(Update - Not sure whether this one counts as it's only a baby:

Firefighters dismantled a small wind turbine from the roof of a house in Ilfracombe.
Devon and Somerset Fire Service received a call reporting a wind turbine "in a precarious position".)

Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly...

...turbines just give them a new way to die.

(with apologies to Noel Harrison)

Round. ..
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel,
So the turbines of the Islands
Dance their ever-spinning reel.
Then one lone and ardent twitcher
On a sunny afternoon
Gets a glimpse of something special,
Calls his friends and pretty soon
Eager crowds of them are rushing
To that bare and lonely place;
"Hirundapus caudacutus!" 
Eager smiles on every face
Until they reach the spot and find
What the windmills left behind....

(Picture from Fox News)

Meanwhile, you might like to investigate the Guardian Environment blog's unique approach to the story and savour the use of their magic word:

Predictably, some people, who have shown little interest in bird conservation before, have sought to martyr this poor bird for their anti-windfarm cause. This is as offensive as it is irrational.

The Sunday Songbook - A tale of two turbines

A few months ago, the incomparable Anna Raccoon wondered whether future generations of schoolchildren would be reciting rhymes about wind turbines.

If so, along with the paeans of praise (should the Green lobby prevail), there would surely be ditties commemorating the memorable failures - 'Red sky at night, turbine's alight' and so on. A news story this week perhaps also deserves to be celebrated in song.

That being so, I'd like to offer this as a possibility...
(And yes, it is our old friend Kirklees Council again)

The council put windmills in Huddersfield town,
A couple of turbines
Up there on the roofline;
From morning to evening they'd spin round and round
Generating power in Huddersfield town.

I saw a turbine,
Up in the air
Though there's no wind up there;
It's clearly not revolving,
Well I declare,
It earns less than it costs to repair.

The Town's Civic Centre turns out to be set
In a sheltered location
With a low elevation;
The redfaced officials now try to pretend
That public awareness was their ultimate end.

I saw a turbine,
Up in the air
Though there's no wind up there;
It's clearly not revolving,
Well I declare,
It earns less than it costs to repair.

Now you see them...

On my recent train journey to the ancestral homeland, I discovered a neat trick.

Dismayed by the myriad wind turbines disfiguring the well-loved landscape, I removed my glasses to rub my weary eyes and, thanks to the myopia I had until then deeply resented, they vanished almost without trace. At last, I have found an advantage to being short-sighted.

If only it were really that simple!

Just take your turbines off the highland hills
And the island hills - these are my land's hills!
We want no windmills on the highland hills
Buggering up the hills of home!

Update: From The Scottish edition of the Telegraph:

'Scottish households could be left with higher power bills after independence to fund subsidies for wind and wave farms, energy companies and the government indicated yesterday.

The First Minister's plan for a major expansion of green power projects relies on households in the remainder of the UK continuing to subsidise the schemes after separation as part of a single energy market.'