This week our Contested Landscape series turns to one of the most hotly disputed countryside issues of them all – should we be erecting more massive wind turbines, or not? Martin Hesp was buffeted from one point of view to another as he researched our two-part overview

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IN A bungalow on a Cornish hillside a man sits watching windmills on a computer screen – 65 miles to the northeast some highly dedicated and motivated protesters are gathered at a well-known viewpoint looking at distant windmills featured in a computer simulation – but the gap between cannot be measured in mere miles alone. The man in the bungalow and the folk at the viewpoint are further than poles apart.

It's a juxtaposition symbolic of the entire emotive row going on over wind energy. No other contested landscape issue – save perhaps for the hunting debate – is so polarised. There is no middle ground.

Once you get involved with windmills – to use that quaint old fashioned term – you either love them, or loathe them.

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The man in the bungalow is Martin Edwards and he not only loves wind energy, but he knows a lot about it having run the UK's oldest wind farm for nearly 20 years. All 10 of the turbines at his Delabole wind farm are linked to the computer in Martin's nearby bungalow so he can monitor wind speed, output, and so on.

Talk to Martin on the subject, and he will calmly and coolly tell you why wind energy is such a good idea.

Talk to those half dozen highly motivated – and, it has to be said, highly intelligent and formidable – protesters standing at the airy Exmoor viewpoint above the village of Molland, and you will hear a completely opposing set of facts and figures.

They have gathered at this scenic place to show the WMN computer simulations of how the vast swathe of Devonshire countryside which lies beyond will look if 24 giant wind turbines are built at four different sites.

These folk – and a small army of their supporters – are fighting tooth and nail to have the turbines stopped.

My buffeting journey into the wind energy debate has taken me from Cornwall, through Devon – up onto Exmoor to look at the soon to be spoiled (or enhanced, depending on your opinion) view – across to the Quantock Hills, and even up to Herefordshire. And what has amazed me during the trek is how black and white the wind-energy argument is.

Both sides will fire endless studies and examples at you to demonstrate that either wind-energy is the best thing since sliced bread – or that it is the worst. Both are equally convinced that their cause is, without any doubt, the right one.

What I have not seen once, during the journey, is a shrug of the shoulders. Never have I heard: "There could be a middle way...." Not even: "Wind farms might be OK in the right place."

It's either: "They are the only sensible way forward." Or: "They are a daft idea – they don't work when the wind doesn't blow and they ruin the countryside."

That is a mild synopsis – you only have to read comments left on the Western Morning News website when we have covered wind energy news to see how emotional people can get.

It's a situation which was ramped-up big-time last week after Energy Secretary Ed Miliband used an article in the WMN to insist the Westcountry had "no option" but to support a massive expansion of wind farms in the face of the growing threat from climate change.

Mr Miliband described the plans as playing a "major part" in this month's Budget when the PM will vow to create a "greener economy".

"This is a job creator, a quality of life improver, and an environment-enhancing measure," said Mr Miliband later. "We want to harness a general desire among people to be part of this. A better Britain means building a greener Britain."

"There isn't much I'd be tempted to take up arms against," a Totnes reader called Alan commented on our website. "However, if one of those blasted wind turbines appears on the beautiful skyline visible from my country house, my fingers will be itching for the trusty blunderbuss. The unholy alliance between fat cat business, Nouveaux Verdes, the Tory party, pop stars and the Loony Left makes my skin crawl…"

No meeting of minds there, then. And not much meeting of minds anywhere in the Westcountry wind, as far as I can make out…

So let us – for the sake of the vast majority of readers who I'm guessing are out there dizzy in the breeze of mild confusion – attempt to funnel the great wind energy debate into a few basic constituent parts.

The real question can be divided in two: the first and most obvious for lovers of the Westcountry is about how wind turbines feature in a landscape – the second is about their real worth and efficiency.

Of course, an answer to the second could immediately change the way you think about the first – if it was proved beyond doubt that wind turbines are an ineffective way of providing electricity, you would be able to say: "Why mess up our glorious countryside with these useless eyesores?"

If you believe the wind offers an instant, clean, effective answer to our energy needs, then perhaps you would be able to argue for their place in the landscape – no matter how natural and attractive the place.

In pure appearance terms alone, it's by no means a "given" that Westcountry folk hate the look of them. The vast majority of people I've spoken to in the last week do give wind turbines the thumbs-down, but a significant minority actively like them.

Molly Groves, one of the leaders of the erstwhile Exmoor Revolting Peasants Party and a lioness when it comes fighting for the region's traditional way of life, took me utterly off guard when she opined: "I love the look of them. We look forward to seeing them when we go to Cornwall – they add interest to the landscape."

It goes without saying that Martin Edwards likes the look of them too, but he made this more telling point: "What you see with wind farms is exactly what you get. What you can't see with nuclear or coal-fired generation is all the pollution."

It also goes without saying that those protesters up on Molland Moor hate the look of them – and everything they stand for. They are members of the Two Moors Campaign – and don't think they represent a bunch of Nimbys who don't want something big and nasty in their back yard.

These people have researched the living daylights out of wind energy. They have raised and spent thousands of pounds in their fight, have hired QCs and other experts – and can quote you chapter and verse about why wind turbines are ineffective. They can even point you in the direction of countries which boast wind-generation success and tear their arguments to pieces.

I jotted just under 1,000 words of notes when talking to Bob Barfoot, Jane Faust, David Morgans, Mick Addison and Richard Delf – and since then the group have e-mailed me the word-count equivalent of a long novel as well as given me computer-simulation photographs and a DVD.

Their battle is against four applications for wind farms situated in the vast mid-Devonshire basin just south of Exmoor National Park. That is why we met at Molland – it boasts one of the best viewpoints in the entire South West and it is a vista which would be changed forever if the 24 giant wind-turbines were to be built.

Two of the applications – the Three Moors and Bickham sites – are up for appeal at a public inquiry being staged at South Molton on June 9 which is expected to last for the best part of a month. I'd be surprised if it doesn't go on for longer.

We do not time in this overview to look in detail at this one battle, suffice to say the group has the backing of many other societies and forums, and it is attacking the proposed wind farms on a wide spectrum of factors.

"The first question is about the impact on the landscape, tourism etc.," said Bob Barfoot who, as chairman of North Devon Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, is the sort of man who leaves no stone unturned.

"The other is about looking at the turbines purely as an industrial enterprise. What is the point? They generate only roughly 25 per cent of the rated capacity – there has to be conventional power back-up because of the unpredictable wind – and very often the grid has a problem in coping with that."

So here we come to wind energy's big drawback. When the wind doesn't blow, wind turbines are about as useful as a Saharan flood prevention scheme.

The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) argues: "The UK is the windiest country in Europe, so much so that we could power our country several times over using this free fuel."

Members of the Two Moors Campaign and others like them around the country argue against this and will quote you endless figures concerning wind energy's lack of real muscle – even as august a body as the House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs has doubts, stating: "Wind generation should be viewed largely as additional capacity", because it "produces electricity only intermittently".

This intermittence wouldn't matter so much if we had ways of storing energy produced during windy periods – but that technology, alas, doesn't yet exist.

However, the BWEA remains upbeat about the performance of its member's turbines: "A modern 2.5MW turbine at a reasonable site will generate 6.5 million units of electricity each year," says the BWEA. "Enough to meet the annual needs of over 1,400 households."

"That's what it would generate running at 30 per cent of the time – that figure doesn't stand up to scrutiny," says Bob Barfoot. "The Government figure is much lower than that – the latest figure for South West is 23 per cent – so that's down to 5.0 million units. Then they state the average requirements of a UK home – but wind-energy will not supply those homes with 'despatchable power' – the ability to meet demand at all times.

"On a today like today," said Bob as we stood on a, for once, airless Exmoor ridge. "It's no good having that sort of energy supply when the Coronation Street ads come on and everyone gets up to make a cup of tea."

Let's stand back a bit from the details to look at the overall question of wind-energy acceptance or non-acceptance. Crispin Aubrey is a respected environmental journalist who lives on the slopes of the Quantock Hills and who, over many years, has campaigned against nuclear expansion at nearby Hinkley Point.

After being in the environmental boxing ring for so long with a nuclear-fuelled opponent, it is perhaps not surprising that Crispin is willing to support an alternative like wind energy.

"What I'm saying is that it is possible for people to get used to wind turbines as they do in Germany – all over Europe, in fact," he said. "Fossil fuels are running out and nuclear can be dangerous – so we've got to have renewables and Britain is the windiest country in Europe. It would be crazy not to do it.

"People are not seeing bigger picture. In Germany, with a population of some 80 million, 10 per cent of the nation's electricity is coming from the wind and that's going up to 25 per cent by 2020.

"What the Government should be saying in somewhere like Cornwall is: 'Let's see if we can get a local industry going. Let's make the turbines here – the blades here… Let's employ a lot of people. Let's regenerate electricity, sell it and raise money locally'. When people have a sense of ownership, that's when they are far more willing to accept something that, before, they may well have rejected."

One person who would disagree with every single word of this is the redoubtable Angela Kelly who, at 80 years of age, has been fighting against wind turbines for the best part of two decades.

"The point is that the damn things don't work," says Angela who has been orchestrating the fight through an organisation called Country Guardian (www.countryguardian.net) from her Herefordshire home. "It's not only a question of what happens when the wind drops – they (wind turbines) will completely destroy the scale of nature.

"We've got fight this racket," she insisted. "People, businesses, only love wind energy because we are all forced – through hidden subsidies – to pay for it. Companies make huge money and don't have to worry whether it works or not – it's all about being seen to be green.

"When the wind is blowing you still have to have a coal-fired station chugging over, because you can't start one of those up in a few minutes when the wind drops.

"We're going to destroy our countryside completely.

"Britain has always been renowned for its beautiful rural landscape – this mad addiction to wind energy could ruin it in a trice."

The fight, it seems, has only just begun. As we looked out over the vast swathe of central Devon, Richard Delf, one of the Two Moors campaigners sighed: "If those 24 turbines get built I'll be gutted. Except I won't be – because they will do so over my dead body."