ENB Pub Note: This article is from the Substack of Robert Bryce and it is fantastic. The world is waking up, and the rejection of the wind, solar and storage projects is growing. Don’t get me wrong, solar without subsidies has its place, and the grid has to take into account the instability that the massive overloading from wind and solar has caused. We recommend following David on his Substack here: https://robertbryce.substack.com/
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The global backlash against battery, solar, and wind energy projects keeps growing.
Among the most notable was the rejection of a wind project in Belgium, near the West Flanders town of Loppem. According to a September 1 article in BrusselsMorning, the project, which included a single turbine 200 meters high, “was cancelled after 882 resident objections, municipal opposition, and heritage concerns.”
The article continued, saying that the nearby town of Zedelgem (population: 22,800) opposed the wind turbine because of “noise pollution and shadow flicker present a danger to a residential area located within 400 meters of the nearby site. The environmental permit application also neglected to mention the surrounding green space and cultural heritage due to the presence of Loppem Castle, a significant heritage property.”
The cancellation is the second veto of a wind project in Belgium in the past two years. It is also the 584th rejection or restriction of wind energy in the newly consolidated Renewable Rejection Database, which now contains 1,104 rejections or restrictions of battery, solar, and wind projects around the world since 2003. In addition to the wind rejections, there have been 448 rejections of solar and 72 rejections of battery projects. And remember, those are minimum numbers.
I started reporting on the rural backlash against solar and wind projects more than 15 years ago. About that same time, I began keeping a list of the rejections and restrictions of alt-energy projects. That effort grew into the Renewable Rejection Database, which, for years, only tracked the rejections of solar and wind energy in the US. A few months ago, I added two more databases: one that tracked global battery rejections, and another that tracked global rejections of solar and wind projects.
But after conferring with my son, Michael Bryce, who is an ace website designer and user-interface guru, we decided that three databases were too cumbersome. Thus, with the help of my other son, Jacob Bryce, we consolidated all of the rejections and restrictions into a single database. That new database is part of my new website, which we launched last week. (Michael did a great job putting it together.)
The new database provides a graphic and powerful rejoinder to the propaganda from the NGO-corporate-industrial-media-climate complex, which frequently claims that the hydrocarbon sector is fomenting rural opposition to alt-energy. The inconvenient truth is simple and obvious: everyone, everywhere, cares about their neighborhoods, and they don’t want their farms, ranches, towns, and villages to be blighted by oceans of solar panels, forests of wind turbines, and blocks of giant batteries.
Two more examples of that sentiment can be seen in Ireland. Earlier this month, an eight-turbine project proposed for the Midlands was vetoed due to “sustained community opposition” that included “public meetings and roadside protests.” As one local media outlet noted, the project, which was to have turbines with blade tips standing 175 meters high, was rejected by the Laois and Kilkenny County Councils “due to the size and scale of the proposed development.”
The rejection of the wind project came a few days after the rejection of a large solar park in East Cork. That project was to cover 175 hectares (432 acres) with solar panels, but according to a September 6 article in CorkBeo, the project “encountered opposition from locals in the Leamlara area.” The Cork County Council denied a permit for the project, saying the developer had not provided sufficient data about water flow and drainage in the area and also “voiced concerns on the impact on an area of rich archeological value.”
The two rejections in Ireland provide yet more proof of the raging backlash against alt-energy that is happening throughout the British Isles. As can be seen in the new database, since January 1 of this year, there have been 48 rejections of wind or solar projects in England, Ireland, and Scotland. Of that number, 32 have been rejections of solar.
Those numbers compel me to report on another study done by asshat academics who ventured into rural areas to find out that — surprise! — people who live in rural areas don’t want their neighborhoods to be turned into sprawling alt-energy industrial zones.
The study, published this month in the journal Energy Strategy Reviews by two employees of the Research Institute for Sustainability (both of them have doctorates), determined that “The energy transition enjoys widespread support among the population in Germany. Nevertheless, renewable energy projects often meet with local resistance.” The two doctors found that…wait for it…rural people are concerned about “landscapes, the environment, and health.”
Stop the presses!
There’s more. The study, which has some 10,000 words, detailed tables, and numerous survey percentages, and 183 footnotes, concluded that opposition to alt-energy projects is “often rooted in grievances against distant political and economic elites perceived as imposing energy transition projects without adequately considering local needs and interests.” Wow! That’s the kind of trenchant analysis the world has been waiting for: rural residents don’t want their neighborhoods to be blighted with alt-energy junk by elite politicians, bankers, and businesses under the guise of climate change!
They continued, explaining that their findings suggest that “local opposition — often rooted in concrete, place-based concerns rather than ideological extremism — can signal democratic vitality.”
I’ll translate that into plain English: Rural people vote. They care about their land. And they will fight to protect their neighborhoods against rent seekers and climate change carpetbaggers. For proof of that, you don’t have to read tedious studies in journals like Energy Strategy Reviews. Instead, I suggest you take a look at the new Renewable Rejection Database, where you can find 1,104 examples that make that very same point.
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