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  Windfarms are not really an option either. They only work when the wind blows. Zilch generated last winter in the cold spell. Big hoo-hah a few days ago when the wind was blowing but demand was low and the National Grid had to instruct the windfarm operators not to supply all this unwanted energy they could not use, and pay huge compensation fees as a result.
  
  Wind energy is erratic and a spinning reserve has to be constantly maintained to keep the lights burning for the great majority of the time when there is no useable wind input to the grid. The back up power stations are gas as that is the only technology that can be put on line immediately, coal and nuclear take days to run up or run down.
  
  Windfarms may turn out to be one of the great cons of history, a South Sea bubble for our times. The only people whom they can confidently be said to benefit are the windfarm operators who only install the turbines when they are guaranteed immense subsidies for decades to come. The energy supplied costs three times that which the National Grid obtains from the other sources and is paid by the consumer via their electricity bills.
  
  NIMBY's were the last line of defence. Not many people living in beautiful countryside want to see giant money-making devices for foreign windfarm operators despoiling the view. Constable's Hay Wain would not look quite the same with a line of Enercon E-126 turbines poking above the trees.
  
  NIMBY's may now be outflanked by two measures announced recently. One is the proposed planning presumption for development. The other is the installation of phased array radars at defence and air traffic control sites where windfarms have until now been banned in the vicinity due to obscuring returns from aircraft when using the current radars. This has enabled some very large onshore windfarms to go ahead.
  
  The four or five turbines proposed for the North Dover windfarm were ruled out by the government inspector Mr. Lavender because of potential obscuration of returns from aircraft over the wind turbine site as viewed by Manston ATC radar. It would seem most unlikely that Manston will fork out £20m for a phased array radar so the NIMBY's around East Langdon are safe for the time being.

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