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| Ørsted windfarm - the Danish giant's industrialisation of the North Sea is to continue |
THE RSPB has responded with anguish to today's announcement that Danish company Ørsted has been granted consent to install 230 more wind turbines off the Yorkshire Coast.
Says its director for global conservation, Martin Harper: "The decision is nothing short of a gamble with the future of our seabirds - especially kittiwakes."
Broadly, the RSPB supports wind energy as an alternative to use of fossil fuels except where its own commercial interests are jeopardised.
Ørsted's Hornsea Project Three windfarm threatens to reduce breeding seabird colonies of kittiwakes, gannets, fulmars, puffins and other marine species at its money-spinning Bempton reserve near Bridlington.
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| Kittiwake - the species is vulnerable to turbine collision |
The planning go-ahead from Whitehall is expected to generate more investment in Grimsby from where Ørsted services its existing windfarms off the Yorkshire Coast.
Enthuses its UK boss Duncan Clark: "We are delighted.
"This is the culmination of a thorough and rigorous process which ensures that the project can deliver much needed clean energy."
Mr Clark says Ørsted will compensate for the potential loss of kittiwakes - through collisions and other disturbance - by installing four onshore nesting towers specifically designed for kittiwakes.
However, the RSPB says this 'compensation' concept is "unproven".
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| This pilot kittiwake tower - with external nesting ledges - is in Gateshead |
The Wryneck says: This further industrialisation of the North Sea should provide a medium-term boost to the Grimsby economy which needs all the help it can get. Trouble is that, like the fax machine, energy generated by wind is only an intermediate technology. Within 20 years, it will be obsolete as more efficient methods of producing electricity emerge. Sadly, in the meantime, hundreds of thousands of birds and other marine life, such as whales and dolphins, will be lost for ever to collisions with turbines and other disturbance. What is the point of installing nesting towers for kittiwakes in summer if many, if not most, are killed by turbines in winter? As for the RSPB, its opposition has been tepid at best with scant effort to alert the public to the threat. Belatedly, the charity is crying over spilled milk when, if had shown more campaigning vigour from the outset, the milk might never have been spilled.
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