IT HAS been dubbed “21st- century tree-hugging”. While Swampy got up close and personal with a Dutch elm, modern eco-enthusiasts are being urged to “touch a turbine”.

As part of a new celebrity-backed campaign, lovers of renewable energy are throwing their arms around wind turbines to commune with green power.

The trend is backed by the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), which is calling on the public to visit and touch wind turbines. Its Embrace the Revolution scheme aims to let people see wind farms up close to allay fears that they are noisy and unsightly as firms seek planning permission to allow their spread across Britain.

The campaign has enlisted the support of Anita Roddick, the Body Shop founder; the television presenters Chris Tarrant and Magnus Magnusson; Alex Kapranos, lead singer with Franz Ferdinand; and Anna Ryder Richardson, the designer.

Already more than 6,000 people have visited wind farms where they were encouraged to touch and climb the turbines. On one site in Ardrossan, Ayrshire, children were encouraged to leave painted handprints on a turbine. But while the trend appears to be growing, the government has warned the public that it could be in for a shock.

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) claims that the turbines carry the risk of electrocution and injury from loose machinery.

Turbine hugging is featured in a Powergen advertisement in which Simon Day, the Fast Show comedian, wraps his arms around one of the installations.

“I believe, if you don’t understand wind power, that you should go and find out about it and hug it,” said Magnusson.

“Then you can make your own mind up much better. I don’t find them any more ugly than I find pylons ugly — they remind me of old ladies holding their skirts.”

Grant Thoms, of the Scottish Renewables Forum which supports the growth of wind farms, said turbine huggers were a different breed from their tree-hugging cousins of the 1990s. “They are two separate groups of people, because members of the tree-hugging fraternity do not tend to be that sympathetic to wind power,” he said.

“We like them to come on an open weekend when there are members of staff around so they can not only hug them but they can interact and talk through what they are seeing.

“The purpose is not just to hug it but to find out how it works. Some people are intrigued by the hypnotic effect of watching the turbines go around.

“They are safe to touch — although we wouldn’t advocate doing it during a thunderstorm. This is one of the myths we try to dispel and the DTI advice is just going to perpetuate.”

The DTI’s engineering inspectorate has issued guidelines discouraging people from touching the turbines following a series of accidents.

Anti-wind farm campaigners have catalogued hundreds of safety breaches, including turbines collapsing and lumps of ice thrown at high speed. Yesterday it was reported that ScottishPower had ordered a walker to leave the area around a wind farm in Argyll after chunks of ice began falling from the blades.

“We would not normally advise any member of the public to make contact with installations being used for the supply of electricity,” said a DTI spokesman. “Though the risks to the public from wind turbines are minimal they are large industrial structures and it is sensible to take precautions.”

David Craig, an engineering consultant who campaigns against wind farms, has compiled evidence of hundreds of turbine accidents. “My advice to anyone thinking of hugging a wind turbine is: keep taking the medicine,” he said.

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