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Ashton
Windmill at Chappel Allerton on the Isle of Wedmore lies in
an exposed spot.
You can see Cheddar Gorge, Brent Knoll and much of the Somerset
Levels from up there.
Being so exposed, it is certainly a windy spot.
The
mill dates from the eighteenth century but milling has gone
on here since the fourteenth century.
Our ancestors realised that the energy of the weather - in
the form of wind - could be harnessed and turned to their
advantage.
Meteorologists
tend to focus on the destructive effects of that energy: the
West Country is frequently battered by gales of 60 to 70 MPH.
A big raincloud can dump millions of litres of water in just
a few hours; and a big electrical storm can release as much
energy as 10 Hiroshima’s.
Tornadoes
- even here in the West Country - are quite capable of flinging
motor cars and even cattle into the air.
If
we are to take the threat of global warming seriously then
we need to take a leaf out of the book of the millers of Wedmore.
Wind
energy doesn’t produce any greenhouse gases and the hills
and coasts of the West Country are certainly windy enough.
The downside is that to generate as much energy as, say, Hinkley
Point, we’d need thousands of medium-sized turbines across
the West Country.
Whilst
some of us would argue that turbines are aesthetically pleasing
- moving sculptures if you will - others see them as eyesores.
There were plenty of objectors to proposals for a wind turbine
at Nympsfield in Gloucestershire in 1999.
If
not wind powers, then how about energy from the sun?
We probably get more sunshine than you think.
Even
if we had as much sunshine as California, we’d need to cover
about one fifth of the West Country with solar panels in order
to meet all our energy needs.
The
Sun delivers an average of 400 watts of energy over every
square metre of the Earth’s surface.
Some of that energy is uncontrollable - thunderstorms, downpours
and gales we just have to endure.
The
challenge is to make the most of that energy when it comes
in a more benign and friendly form.
A
challenge that was first met on the Somerset hills more than
600 years ago.
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