I think that there is a great deal of hot air talked about wind power - from both sides of the divideTwo have just been erected a mile or two from where we live on the site of the old Orgreave pit [Howdy, Arthur!] in the middle of an industrial estate. Try as I may, I can find no reason whatsoever to object to these if they are privately funded.
Attempting to spend £100 billion of taxpayers' money on these expensive white elephants is quite another matter; ruining countryside and skylines is an abomination; the deaths of so many birds troubles me greatly.
Perhaps the real issue is the inefficiency, however.
See what Chris Booker has to say:
"This is the unavoidable fact that wind speeds around the British Isles are constantly varying, often providing no power at all - so that the electricity actually generated by these turbines represents only between a quarter and a third of their nominal 'capacity'.
What this means is that conventional coal, gas, oil or nuclear-fired power stations must be on permanent stand-by to provide all the electricity the turbines are not able to produce when the wind is not blowing.
Earlier this month, Paul Golby, the chief executive of the German-owned E.ON (one of our largest electricity companies), came up with the shattering admission that the back-up needed for our new wind turbines would amount to 90 per cent of their capacity.
This alone would mean building scores more gas and coal-fired power plants, to guarantee continuous supply during those times when the wind is not blowing and therefore the turbines are not generating any electricity."
What can I say, other than the fact that our government are idiots. Like it, hate it, mistrust it - it really makes no difference, the future is nuclear.
Had we begun to address the problem decades ago and also during the tenure of this government, perhaps there would have been other options. There no longer are.
The French planned ahead - we did not and now our consumers will be held to ransom for generations!
LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1029551/A-load-hot-air-Why-spending-100bn-windfarms-EU-Labours-greatest-act-lunacy.html
