There must be a better solution than turbines
www.granthamjournal.co.uk 10 March 2012
With reference to Ms Alison Robson’s column, I would say that scientists and ecologists believe in green, but not in turbines.
Turbines are, as you rightly say, expensive and land owners who invest in these turbines are laughing all the way to the bank. Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROC) line the pockets of the already rich land owners who have found industrial-sized turbines to be the best investment in the current financial climate.
And we the general public pay more for our utilities to pay the dividends in the form of ROCs to the land owners who are very happy about the money there is to be made. And why not?
The proposed turbine at Allington is hardly a wind farm. “Wind farm” is a misleading description for an industrial turbine. As a farmer’s daughter I find the idea of filling the planet with large amounts of concrete that are needed to form the base of each and every turbine a crime against the planet. Turbines need massive concrete bases to support the structure of the turbine and when the Turbine is decommissioned, the concrete base is not removed although developers say they will return the site to how it was before it was built. That statement is in fact untrue because they do not remove the concrete base.
Turbine construction can disrupt the hydrology of the area and contaminate water supplies. Thus the planet can have its water course altered for ever and the turbines can also crack the bedrock and divert the natural watercourses.
All of this does not seem very green to me.
Ms Robson does not make it clear as to what she is talking about when she says: “The fact of the matter is, we can’t sustain our current power methods.”
It is impossible to build enough turbines to meet the needs of this country. To do that you would have to cover the entire country – and what would you do when the wind was not blowing?
Turbines only work when the wind blows, and you therefore have to have conventional back-up at all times. What is the point of building a turbine if you always need a backup?
The reason why people build turbines is because they are a good investment, and utility companies get fined if they do not produce a proportion of their electricity by green methods.
I believe we should certainly look after our planet. I do not believe digging large holes and filling them with concrete to be the answer.
But there are other new methods of green energy coming along, ideas that are really green and sustainable – it’s just a matter of time.
For the time being, solar panels are the most appropriate form of green energy that everybody can benefit from without harming anybody.
CHRISTINA M LEES
Foston
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/03/10/there-must-be-a-better-solution-than-turbines/