Fair enough Paul, I do agree with your environmental argument to an extent. However this also needs to consider the carbon and financial cost of alternative measures to meet the educational needs of the school in the equation. At end of life the turbine is also largely recyclable as well, reducing its own embodied carbon impact. Moreover, as a community based scheme, if the educational benefit of this project encourages energy reduction behaviour both within school and the community then the carbon impact of such a beacon project is far wider than can be sensibly analysed.

I'm sure a private turbine would not pass any sensible economic test at that total project cost, even with reasonably pessimistic views of future energy prices, but a private installation would not require a number of the components of this project and would not cost any where near as much.

I think we've hit upon the problem with grants as market incentives - they skew proper decision making. There are plenty of people chasing both LCBP and CSEP funding with a view to a free turbine (and other technolologies) at the moment in situations where the product is just not suitable and it's important that MCS accredited installers give responsible advice to avoid leading the industry into dark and disreputable areas.. The number of turbines in pretty windless Tesco car-parks is testament to the fact that people install turbines for many reasons other than good economics.

regards
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Quisling