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Councillor says wind energy is too unreliable
Credit: By Jamie MacDonald, Alloa & Hillfoots Advertiser, www.alloaadvertiser.com 12 January 2011 ~~
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Translate: FROM English | TO English
West Fife SNP Councillor William Walker has slammed the wind turbine industry – describing it as “completely erratic” – and has questioned its usefulness.
Mr Walker has higlighted the lack of wind in recent weeks, a time when energy has been needed most to warm homes, as a case in point of the sector’s unreliability.
He said, “The John Muir Trust (JMT) is spot on in publicly criticising the windfarm industry over wholly misleading statistics which just mislead the public.
“The JMT is charged with protecting Scotland’s natural beauty and so is understandably not happy with large windfarms blotting the countryside.
“However, it is also correct in pointing to the technical and economic folly of regarding windfarms as any kind of reliable contributor to our electricity generating needs.
“This has again be borne out in our recent prolonged cold weather spell with its unprecedented demand for electricity, rather similar to last winter.
“Again, there was hardly a drop of wind to power wind turbines, not just in Scotland but across most of northern Europe. It was estimated that wind turbines provided less than 3 per cent of electricity demand, so what use are they?
“By contrast, coal-fired Longannet Power Station and other firm sources of power were working full-out to successfully meet demand so that the lights did not go out.”
Mr Walker is a Chartered Electrical Engineer with experience in the energy industry. He will be standing as an SNP Scottish Parliamentary candidate for Dunfermline in the May elections.
The councillor continued, “Just what is the point of wind turbines which are completely erratic in their generation and even then can only operate at best 22 per cent of the time according to their spokesman’s own figures? Certainly the electricity consumer does not benefit as the wind farm owners and operators get huge subsidies with high prices charged to the final customer.
“What has been going on for too long now is that a massive ‘con trick’ has been played on the paying public by wind farm backers who have been able to equate wind with properly sustainable, reliable and predictable sources of power such as maritime tidal, current and wave plus hydroelectric under the ‘renewables’ umbrella. Wind is a very wasteful use of public financial support and it’s about time it was reviewed.”
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