Is it feasible for wind turbines to be placed on or next to electricity pylons? This would surely overcome the main objection of them spoiling the landscape. If not, why not?
• On purely aesthetic grounds neither option would get rid of the objections. At 100 metres tall, a 1.5-megawatt wind turbine is over twice as high as the standard UK national grid pylon.
The majority of pylons have been located to avoid high winds, while wind turbines need to be in areas of prodigious wind. An inland low-altitude wind turbine on a site with a wind speed of at least 3 to 4 metres per second 50 per cent of the time would produce barely 20 per cent of the output of a coastal site with wind speeds of at least 5 to 6 metres per second 50 per cent of the time.
Building next to pylons would not ...
To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.