Three wind farms are already being proposed for this part of North and East Yorkshire - and more may be on the way. STEPHEN LEWIS visited a Cumbrian wind farm to find out what is in store for us.

FROM a distance, glimpsed as you crest a rise in the road, the wind turbines look like giant marching figures striding across the landscape. There is something strangely serene and uplifting about them. A hint of grace, light, beauty and of promise for the future.

It is the movement of the arms that gives away how big they are - a ponderous sweep down and up that hints at size and power.

Up close that impression becomes overwhelming. Stand beneath one of the towers and the blades swish down towards you, implacable and unstoppable, thwumping through the air above your head before soaring off and up into space again.

Don Quixote would have loved them.

The sight of a wind farm - such as this one at Lambrigg in Cumbria - sailing across a hillside is one that many of us will become familiar with in the coming years. The Government has set tough new targets on the generation of power from renewable sources.

At the moment just two per cent of the electrical power we use in the UK is 'renewable'. By 2010, the Government wants to see that rise to 10 per cent - and to 20 per cent by 2020.

Few would argue with such a strategy in principle. "There is now clear evidence that global warming and climate change are a reality, and will have major adverse effects on sea-levels, water supply and agriculture worldwide in the coming decades," says a pamphlet produced by National Wind Power, the biggest developer and manager of wind farms in Britain.

"One of the major causes of global warming is the emission of large volumes of the gas carbon dioxide, resulting from, among other things, the generation of electricity."

It's is an uncomfortable truth in a region that once relied heavily for jobs on the coal industry. But viewed long term, coal-fired power stations such as Drax, which presently generate most of our energy, probably represent the dirty past.

They pump carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and devour our dwindling coal reserves.

Whereas a wind turbine, says Clare Wilson of National Wind Power, is harvesting something that is free, produces no CO2 and will never run out.

Wind isn't the only renewable energy source. Hydro-electric power and the harnessing of waves both have potential - as well as 'biomass' systems which generate energy by incinerating biological waste.

But wind power technology is way out ahead and, with each region of the country coming under increasing Government pressure to step up its production of energy from renewable resources, they are going to become more common.

Already, three are proposed for this part of North and East Yorkshire. National Wind Power has already been granted conditional approval by East Riding of Yorkshire Council for a 16-turbine wind farm near Goole which, they say, could generate enough pollution-free electricity to supply 13,000 homes.

The same company also recently unveiled proposals for a similar farm, this time for up to eight turbines, at Knab's Ridge near Harrogate. That, they say, could meet the average yearly needs of 7,000 homes - or most of Knaresborough. Locals are being invited to an exhibition at Kettlesing Millennium Village Hall on Saturday, October 4 and at Pately Bridge Memorial Hall on Sunday, October 5 to see the plans and ask questions.

Rival firm Wind Prospect, meanwhile, wants to build a 14-turbine wind farm at Newland, a mile and a half east of Drax village.

Desirable in principle they may be, but that doesn't necessarily mean people want one on their doorstep. Already, local people have begun to claim the farms will be ugly and drive house prices down. They say the giant turbines will be noisy and will kill birds.

They are all concerns commonly expressed whenever plans for a new wind farm are discussed, says Clare.

There is little that can be done if people don't like the look of them, she concedes. In this country we probably won't ever get forests of them as found in certain deserts in the United States, insists her colleague Rhys Howells, National Wind Power's operational supervisor. But the turbines are, by their very nature, big - getting on for 300ft tall. You can paint them a dull matt grey to blend in against the sky, but they will stand out. Whether you then think they are things of beauty or blots on the landscape is largely a matter of individual taste.

There is little substance to any of the other concerns, however, says Clare.

Wind farms are not built on the routes of migrating birds, or in areas where rare birds such as ospreys are living, she says.

But all the evidence is that the turbines do not kill birds - or at least, that they are no more of a risk than pylons, or even people's houses.

They don't seem to bother livestock, either. Certainly, the sheep clustered around the turbines at Lambrigg don't seem worried by them - and in colder weather, adds Rhys, cattle huddle against them for warmth. Horses can sometimes be startled by the turbines, so they are never built near bridleways, says Clare.

When it comes to house prices, she insists the greatest danger is of scaremongers talking prices down. Otherwise, there is little evidence of any impact.

So what about noise?

Stand beneath one of the turbines, as I did at Lambrigg, and there is a powerful swooshing sound as the blades sweep through the air above your head. From the farm gate a few hundred yards away you can still hear them. But the sound is mainly lost in the background noise of the wind. Much further away and you would probably not hear them at all.

The great thing about them is that they are essentially producing electricity from nothing. The Lambrigg turbines are shorter than most, with steel towers 140ft high and glass-fibre blades 110ft long. That was a concession to the people of Sedburgh, over a hill on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales. The shorter height of the Lambrigg turbines means they can't be seen from there.

Those built in North and East Yorkshire are likely to be taller, with towers up to 200ft high. But the energy they produce is clean.

The great blades drive a gear system which in turn drives a generator, all housed in a 'nacelle' at the top of the tower. The power produced is fed into an 11KV cable that leads down the tower and underground to a nearby sub-station. From there it is converted and fed into the National Grid.

The farms are not scarred by looping, dangling cables.

The only thing you will see is the great turbines, sails endlessly sweeping.

Whether you tilt at them like Don Quixote, or accept their coming, is up to you.

Updated: 09:50 Friday, September 26, 2003