[jfindley]

Given the small land area and extremely high population density relative to its neighbours, onshore wind in the UK was never going to be a large scale solution. "Terrible for onshore" doesn't matter if sufficient generation can be met in other more reasonable ways.

[tfgg]

We're bad at onshore wind, not due to lack of possible sites, but because of a government ban on building it: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/29/onshore-...

[jfindley]

The guardian likes to ignore this, because it doesn't suit its reporting angle much, but England has 1.8x more population density than Germany and 3.6x(!) more than France. This means by simple maths far less available land per capita. Overall the UK comes in closer (but still ahead) of Germany but this is largely due to Scotland, which is a significant proportion of the UK landmass, but has very few people.

The government ban you mention only applies to England, which already has almost half of the UK's onshore wind despite having by far the least space for it. Making complaints that the rural population of England, already under pressure due to soaring population density, doesn't want their remaining rural spaces covered in wind turbines when plenty of other good options exist requires quite a bit of mental gymnastics to justify.

Population densities in people/km2: England 424, Scotland: 68, UK overall 272, Germany: 232, France: 118. Landmass in thousands of km2: England 130, Scotland: 77, UK overall 242, Germany: 357, France: 551.

[dontlaugh]

There’s so much space in England for wind farms.

The main reason we don’t get more of it is a handful of rich land owners not wanting an “eyesore” on their estates and using their influence to get that result.

This is not a democratic country, after all.

[mytailorisrich]

Considering the huge potential of offshore wind in the UK, I think giving priority to offshore and avoid damage to the landscape makes a lot of sense.

[dukeyukey]

> and extremely high population density

I mean, Belgium and the Netherlands and more dense than the UK, and Germany is only a bit less dense. Plus onshore wind can be placed in agricultural areas, in the middle of cropfields.

But the UK's offshore wind potential in incredible, so I get why we do that instead.

[7952]

It is very high population density surrounded by some places with very low density. But the places with best wind resource in England tend to be AONB, national park. Areas like Lincolnshire, East Anglia have plenty of space.