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Putting our faith in wind power will cast us into a new age of darkness
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Now that the Scottish Executive has wisely rejected the proposal for a giant wind farm on the Isle of Lewis, it is time for a reality check (Letters, 23 April).
Had the wind “farm” been built, and taking wind limitation into account, it would have generated about 180 megawatts of wobbly electricity hundreds of miles from the bulk of consumers. This is perhaps a tenth of the output of a large power station nd because of the wobble no real power stations can be closed in any case.
The medieval “faith” that this would have achieved anything, let alone alter the weather by reducing carbon dioxide emissions, is a delusion which will surely cast us into a new dark age.
(DR) JOHN ETHERINGTON
Llanhowell
Solva, Pembrokeshire
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You may be interested in the latest figures for UK wind farms for 2007. These show that the 1,900 or so wind turbines in the UK generated approximately 5.2 gigawatt hours of electricity. This may sound a lot until one considers that this was less than half that produced by the Peterhead power station for the same period.
The output from the wind farms is so intermittent not a single conventional power station was able to close down. An even bleaker statistic is that these wind turbines are spread over hundreds of square miles of pristine countryside, yet Peterhead power station only occupies a 50-acre site. For its sterling efforts in 2007 the wind industry was subsidised with almost £320 million of consumers’ money, a somewhat dubious investment when you consider that the hypothetical carbon dioxide savings reduced global levels by approximately 0.0008 per cent.
These global levels are increasing by over 2 per cent every year, so, quite clearly, wind arms cannot make the remotest difference to climate change, even assuming our emissions are to blame.
BOB GRAHAM
Craigsview
Orton, Moray
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I was appalled on seeing a photograph of the atrocious Braes O’Doune wind farm behind Stirling Castle. To disfigure such a lovely scenic landscape, combining one of the world’s (not just Britain’s or Scotland’s) finest, most picturesque historic castles, with the stark natural beauty of heather-clad hills as a back-drop, is more than extremely bizarre, it is criminal.
If this is the sort of lunatic decision that Edinburgh’s new Scottish Parliament is capable of making, Scotland would have been better off under English rule.
L J JENKINS
Llysyrynys
Gwbert-on-sea, Cardigan
24 April 2008
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