LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]



Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

News Watch Home

Not a fair wind 

When dams were being built in mid-Wales, Liverpool’s deputy town clerk once said: “Whose water is it? After all, God provided it.”

This is a useful analogy as it is so much easier for entrepreneurial windpower developers to give away a locally resourced commodity. The moment it is fed to the distribution network in which it is embedded, wind-electricity is no longer identifiable from any other sourced power (no little green electrons).

Because the high voltage grid is contiguous throughout England, Wales and Scotland, a big windfarm just reduces the drain on it, irrespective of “whose” wind it is.

If we truly needed windpower the only fair apportionment would be an equal per capita amount of generation close to “home”. Why should urban residents freely exploit the countryside?

If I pump water from the nearest stream I have to pay a water rate because abstraction causes a knock-on problem for the community. So does wind – ranging from spoiling the view, through devaluing our homes and tourist industry to causing health and power engineering problems.

Windpower should pay the analogy of a water rate and it should be per unit of production, not just a flat-rate political sop. Instead we give it a 100 per cent subsidy.

Dr John Etherington,

Llanhowell, Pembrokeshire

Western Morning News

28 August 2007

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon