You don't have to think small and individual to do something to tackle the impacts of climate change. When three Welsh farmers decided to generate their own power they might have had various reasons for doing it, but it has turned into an environmental and sustainable development success story!

Welsh farming
Wales is a country that is known for its many sheep – some say there are more sheep than people! Sheep farming has been a main industry and way of life for many in the Welsh countryside, but sheep farmers have faced many challenges in recent years with falling prices as well as restrictions resulting from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 when the Welsh hills were polluted by nuclear fallout.

Cwymni Gwynt Teg
Facing this increasing financial hardship and uncertainty for the future, three farmers decided to use the natural resource of their windy hills to diversify into a different kind of farming to supplement their income. Brothers Robin and Rheinallt Williams and their neighbour Geraint Davies formed a co-operative to build three wind turbines on their land in the Conwy Valley in Wales.

They called their co-operative Cwmni Gwynt Teg which is Welsh for Fair Wind Company. This was a unique move as although other Welsh farmers had used their land for wind farms before it had always been by renting it to developers. Cwmni Gwynt Teg decided to develop the wind farm themselves and it is the first in Wales to be both built and owned by farmers, though they needed to sell one of the turbines to a German company in order to make the co-operative cost effective.

Support and awards
The three turbines built at the Moel Moelogan wind farm by Cwmni Gwynt Teg gained the support of the local community – 1500 local people turned up to watch and support the raising of the first turbine. Cwmni Gwynt Teg has also won a £30,000 Ashden Award for their windfarm. The Ashden Awards reward inspirational and innovative local sustainable energy schemes that protect the environment, tackle climate change and make real improvements to people's quality of life.

Cwmni Gwynt Teg were so successful with their first three wind turbines that they now plan to erect a further 11 turbines in a project called Ail Wynt which means ‘second wind’ which should generate enough power for 10,400 homes.

Anti-windfarm
Not everybody is supportive of wind farms. Many consider them to be blots on the landscape. Local action group CLOUT (Conwy Locals Opposing Unnecessary Turbines) launched a campaign against the building of more turbines saying that the project was taking on the characteristics of a massive power station which ruined the landscape.

However, the Welsh government, along with the rest of the UK, has set targets for renewable and sustainable energy, and projects such as Ail Wynt, which will be 100% owned by the local co-operative, are a way forward. It is now held up as an example of how the Welsh windfarm industry might develop in the future.