May 26, 2008
Letters, Scotland

Concerns over wind power

I am dismayed that, in your editorial Comment (May 23), you dismissed the anti-windfarm lobby as seemingly being concerned only about the loss of landscape that windfarms cause.

With the exception of limited hydro, renewables cannot provide the “base load” electricity. The grid operators plan at least 24 hours in advance and need to know exactly where the electricity will come from.

Wind power is not deemed to be dispatchable – available on demand – and is not taken into consideration during this forward planning.

It is surplus to requirement because it is so intermittent, yet we still pay for it (currently over £100 per MWh – £55 of which is subsidy).

Scotland needs approximately six gigawatts of electricity and if it was possible to generate this from wind power it would reduce global COlevels by approximately 0.07%. With levels rising by 2%-3% a year, destroying our landscapes will be in vain.

Two reports, one by the Royal Society of Edinburgh and one compiled by three Edinburgh University professors at the behest of the previous Scottish Executive, show that the original target of 40% in renewables by 2020 is unachievable, so clearly the latest figure of 50% is just another example of the SNP’s political posturing.

There should be an immediate moratorium on the building of windfarms until the public are made aware of the facts.

Neil McKinnon,

Tulchan Garden,

Glen Almond,

Perth.

The Press and Journal

26 May 2008


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2008/05/26/concerns-over-wind-power/