The bit I quoted are the final paragraphs from a long and rambling piece by Michael Viney, a journalist and environmentalist who retired from the Irish Times many years ago to live in a more self-sufficient way in a small house in a remote and beautiful part of the West of Ireland close to a Mountain called Mwealrea.  

He records his personal difficulty with reconciling himself to having turbines in his own backyard (and perhaps his hope that other solutions can be found) but ultimately, he is very pro wind, and didn't oppose the proposed development of turbines on the mountain.

I think his piece - which draws on some of the same sources as my diary - accurately reflects the conflicts people feel about having turbines in the most remote, unspoilt and scenic areas - but ultimately accepts that, particularly in the current economic climate - some sacrifices or trade-offs have to be made.

Personally I would like to see combined wind and wave plants developed using floating platforms and generating at least some power all the time thus optimising the use of cabling and grid infrastructure and providing some more valuable non-intermittent power as well as wind (the Atlantic is never absolutely calm).  I have no doubt, however, that the bulk of Irish wind energy will be onshore for the foreseeable future because of the lower up front costs involved.

Index of Frank's Diaries