Chris Hopson

Comment by Recharge Editor-in-Chief Christopher Hopson.  Reproduced with kind permission of Recharge.

Opinion polls in many countries show that most people actually like the look of wind farms. There is even a strong body of evidence to suggest that wind farms encourage tourism through such things as trips to visitor centres.

As can be instantly seen from the display of winning photographs for the Global Wind Day competition published across our centre pages this week, not only do wind farms generate power, visually they can be very much in harmony with surrounding landscapes.

Only a vocal anti-wind minority, mainly supported by out-of-touch conservative politicians and right-wing businessmen such as failed US presidential hopeful Donald Trump, view wind farms as “monstrosities”.  The vast majority see wind as an exciting form of clean energy. Looking at the pictures, it’s easy to see why.