April 14, 2011
Letters, Scotland

Landscape under threat

The Courier, www.thecourier.co.uk 14 April 2011The Courier, www.thecourier.co.uk 14 April 2011

Referring to the report, Analysis of UK Wind Power Generation by consultant Stuart Young and supported by the John Muir Trust, Stefan Morkis (April 7) reported Scottish Renewables as accusing the John Muir Trust of acting irresponsibly in backing this investigation into the facts.

The John Muir Trust is a wild land conservation charity. SNH statistics show that the percentage of Scotland’s natural landscape visually unaffected by built development dropped from 41% in 2002 to 28% in 2009.

This was mostly due to industrial-scale wind developments and infra-structure.

This is at the core of our job-standing up for the protection of our wild land.

Scottish Renewables also accused Stuart Young of serious discrepancies and disputed the accuracy of his data – which is taken from a publicly-available National Grid website, with the data available for anyone to check.

Or, just check with the Department of Energy and Climate Change, quoted widely last week as saying that, “Ten months of 2010 saw lower wind speeds than the 10-year average. Wind farms operated at only 21.4% of their maximum potential capacity, compared with 27.4% in 2009. The decline in output was greater in Scotland than in England.”

Stuart Young’s figures were 21.14% in 2010 and 27.18% in 2009. I would say that a less than 0.3% difference is an acceptable margin of error.

Interestingly, DECC’s statistics show that, since 2000, onshore wind load factor has never exceeded 28%.

Yet the industry routinely claims an average of 30%. Certainly, someone needs to check their figures but it isn’t Stuart Young.

Scottish landscapes are being changed forever on a false promise, fuelled by untargeted subsidies.

Ask your election candidates about it and join the John Muir Trust’s campaign to protect wild land, before it is gone,

Helen McDade.
Head of Policy,
John Muir Trust,
Station Road,
Pitlochry.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/04/14/landscape-under-threat/