A LEADING conservationist has put forward ideas for developing renewable energy in the North York Moors National Park.

Writing in Voice of the Moors, the quarterly magazine of the North Yorkshire Moors Association, editor John Farquhar says: "My first priority would be energy saving, encouraged by advice and subsidy, and by effective public transport".

Bio-fuels - woodburning stoves, methane generation from farm waste, charcoal burning and briquette and heat pumps - would help to create "a greener park".

Mr Farquar, who is also an official of the Ryedale branch of the Council to Protect Rural England, says the North York Moors National Park Authority could help to encourage these through subsidy and advice.

He also suggests solar panels and mini-hydro installations along rivers in the park and Ryedale, and small windmills if sited among farm buildings or in unobtrusive locations.

"None of them is going to dramatically reduce our dependence on centrally generated electricity or the internal combustion engine, but together they would make a meaningful contribution towards the national target to reduce carbon monoxide emissions", he states.

He says there is increasing pressure to adopt green technology and adds: "A regional guidance proposes a 'target' of 183 megawatts of renewable electricity by 2010 for North Yorkshire, including four windfarms, four wind clusters and six large single turbines".

But he questions where they could be sited.

"Wind energy can be tapped by very large windmills, grouped in a wind farm, and generating electricity in the megawatt range, but I feel strongly that such installations have no place in a national park which has been designated so that its natural beauty can be preserved.

"If we must have them, and there are growing doubts about how great a contribution they can make in view of the intermittent nature of the source, then they should be sited offshore or within an already industrialised landscape such as the Tees or Humber estuaries".

Mr Farquar adds: "There are smaller windmills which would generate enough power for a farm or a small industrial plant or a group of houses. Have they a place in the national park?"

He says: "Despite all our efforts, we still have electricity and telephone poles in most villages, but should we accept 20ft windmills?".