August 31, 2017
Letters, Scotland

Wind gravy train

The Scotsman | 28 Aug 2017 |

What a disturbing read your article of 25 August “Support needed to help wind farms flourish” was.

The author didn’t gloss over the impact of industrial wind on unwilling communities or the astronomical consumer-funded constraint payments made to operators to turn off turbines because of the SNP’S reckless over deployment of wind. He didn’t even mention it!

Some £336,000,000 in constraints has been paid out at the time of writing – an increase of £8,000,000 in 15 days. The majority in excess of £310,000,000 paid to wind farms in Scotland by the UK consumer. With Westminster looking at ways to reduce energy bills, it can’t be long before they shoot this particular cash cow and send the wind industry into yet another whingeing tail spin.

Many communities forced against their wishes to live with giant, dominating turbines took scant comfort from believing what they were told at approval: This is temporary; the turbines will come down after 20 years; the land will be returned to its original state. While no-one thought the latter would be true, people did think the monuments to a failed energy policy would be removed and not left rusting on the hillsides like abandoned follies as they have in other countries.

Many of us noticed the sneaking in of the word “repowering” – and we knew we had been lied to. The turbines wouldn’t go – they would be made larger and more oppressive; after all, “the infrastructure is in place and the area is already trashed, so why not?”.

What an appalling way to treat a rural population. Not enough votes to worry about so Holyrood Central will keep stoking the wind industry gravy train until someone in Westminster sees sense and derails it.

LYNDSEY WARD
Beauly, Inverness-shire


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/08/31/wind-gravy-train/