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# World leading scientist issues flood warning over Calderdale Windfarm plan
- URL: https://www.calderdaleinsideout.co.uk/world-leading-scientist-issues-flood/
- Published: 2025-06-08T06:45:15.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-06T11:34:29.000Z
- Description: Calder Valley flood risk could increase as a direct result of Walshaw plans
- Author: Nick Meir
- Tags: Podcast, Environment, Borough-wide, Flooding, #calderdaleinsideout, #Migrated-1788611362892, #Import 2026-09-05 12:30

## In this episode of *Calderdale Inside Out* we talk peat, flooding, and explore an alternative solution for windfarm development.

Walshaw Moor isn’t just any landscape. It’s part sponge, part carbon vault, part natural defence system. And it’s the proposed site of England’s largest onshore wind farm.

> “If you destroy that Sphagnum carpet, you are left with bare peat. There’s nothing to stop the water just flowing straight off.”  
> — Mr Richard Lindsay

In this wide-ranging interview, Mr Lindsay — one of the world’s leading peatland ecologists — lays out the risks of building turbines on deep peat. And it’s not just about the carbon loss (although that’s a big one). It’s about what happens downhill.

From bog slides in Ireland to long-term shrinkage and cracking, he explains why disturbing peat doesn’t just harm the land — it may increase flood risk for communities in the Calder Valley.

Richard Lindsay’s conclusion? This isn't just a bad idea. It’s a long-term gamble.

We also touch on the economics. The bit the wind industry doesn’t always advertise.

> Build turbines in windy places.  
> Plug them into a grid that can’t take the power.  
> Then get paid to switch them off.

That’s called a constraint payment — and last year, the UK taxpayers spent close to £2 billion making them.

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