A feature about a two wind turbine installation by Myriad CEG was seen by more than 6million viewers on BBC 1’s Countryfile.
The BBC’s Tom Heap interviewed Andy Paton, who has two Gaia turbines on the family dairy farm which he runs with his father at Edgworth, near Bolton.
During the interview, as part of a feature about the increasing importance of wind turbines across the UK, Andy got a number of key messages across about:
Turbines reducing his costs
- Proving an income
- Wind power will help keep the lights on
- Positive Government policy on wind
- Visual impact will eventually be viewed as similar to pylons, telephone masts
Andy is 43 and married with two children and is approaching the first anniversary of installing two 18-metre wind turbines on his farm.
In the last 11 months, Andy’s two turbines have generated a total of 49,000 KW of electricity, reducing his energy bills by 85 per cent.
Andy told Countryfile: “It reduces our costs, fixes our electricity costs and hopefully in the course of time will provide an income.
“Obviously, they have got to be paid for first and this is a substantial investment.
“If you look around people say this is an unspoilt landscape but then you look around and see an abundance of pylons, a telephone mast.
“Everybody forgets about them or they fade into the subconscious.
“As time progresses people will just forget about them the same way they do about electricity pylons.
“The Government are obviously pushing wind turbines and rightly so in my opinion and if we don’t do something there is a very real danger of the lights being turned off in the not too distant future.”
The interview with Andy Paton starts at around 13mins 20secs and you can watch it here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01glv3y/Countryfile_15_04_2012/