I note that the recent refusal by Neath Port Talbot Council of the appeal against their rejection of the Awel Aman Tawe application to build a wind farm on Mynydd Gwrhyd has caused a small flurry of pro wind farm letters to these columns.All their arguments have been adequately dealt with in earlier correspondence. For example, Roger Knight (Have Your Say, October 24) continues to claim that the unreliability of when the wind will blow can be coped with by the grid, without the need for CO2 emitting station back-up.
I am a consulting electrical engineer, and the simple fact is that Spain, a big investor in wind power, had large partial blackouts in March and June of 2005 due to such wind unreliability. Spain is now busily building CO2 emitting gas-fired power stations as fast as it can, to compensate for wind unreliability.
I passionately want renewable energy which is effective in the fight against global warming. This means tidal and solar power. Both are predictable but not 24-hour producers such as biomass and wood-burning power stations. The single wood-burning power station being proposed for Port Talbot could provide more predictable green electricity than all the unreliable wind farms planned for Tan8 put together.
Jack Harris
Eaton Crescent
Uplands, Swansea
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2006/10/28/powerful-argument/