Jeffrey Corrigan of Broadview Energy company (letters, October 5) should tell us how many megawatts of electricity the proposed turbines at Westnewton will produce.
It is high time these energy company representatives stopped all their “spinning” about how many houses will be supplied by these industrial monsters.
Any electricity produced will go into the National Grid, not to specific communities.
Turbines have an operating range of 10-55mph wind speed. At the low end, there is hardly any useful power to be had whilst at the upper ranges the turbine may need to be switched off to avoid damage.
Met Office data states that 73 per cent of the wind in the UK is below 18mph whilst 85 per cent of any turbine’s efficiency potential is above 18kmph. This suggests there is only a narrow segment of useful wind available.
The coldest weather is when there are frosts and often no wind. An independent study by the Renewable Energy Foundation in 2006 on how much electricity wind turbine farms in Britain are producing found that turbines in Cumbria only ran on average at 25.9 per cent of capacity.
The only regions that operated turbines at or above 30 per cent were Caithness, Orkney, Shetland and Southern Scotland. Even the offshore wind farms of North Hoyle and Scroby Sands on opposite sides of the country averaged only 32.6 per cent.
What a huge scam electricity users are subsidising, plus the destruction of our most valuable asset, the beautiful landscape. The local economy will suffer as it depends so heavily on tourism.
Don’t believe the “spin” about job creation for the local economy either.
The energy companies use their own designated employees. The only local jobs when a large wind farm was built in Wales was for the supply of Portaloos!
The value of many homes will be reduced if the many turbine farms that are proposed to ring round the Lake District National Park are constructed. There are currently 21 being considered.
SUZANNE GREENHILL
Parkside Avenue
Cockermouth
12 October 2007
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/10/12/these-energy-output-figures-have-more-spin-than-the-turbines/