IN an otherwise interesting article, Colette Douglas Home (“When onshore
wind turbines blow an ill wind,The Herald, January 6) refers to figures
issued by WWF claiming that renewables electricity supplied more than 100
per cent of our needs in six months of last year.
The actual figures issued by WWF and supplied by Renewables UK are
seriously misleading, since they refer only to domestic electricity
consumption, which is just one third of our electricity requirements.
Renewable electricity does not enter the electricity grid with a little tag
saying only deliver to households; other uses are equally important and
form the major requirement. Environmental organisations either exaggerate
what they issue to the press (three-fold as they did here) or omit
important costs that their policies would inflict on a long-suffering public.
Given that consumer’s money has been typically thrown at the problem,
simply building more turbines will eventually generate more electricity. So
expect further exaggerated press releases from environmentalists as more
turbines come online. The critical question is cost and the other report
again produced by an environmental charity and publicised by WWF suggesting
that we don’t actually need fossil or nuclear fuels by 2030 does not even
entertain the question.
Since projections by Holyrood that fuel poverty will hit mainstream houses
in the next few years and electricity bills used to fund this programme are
a primary part of this cost, when are we going to get sense in any of this
situation and, as Ms Douglas Home indicates, call it a day.
Professor Tony Trewavas FRS,
Chairman, Scientific Alliance Scotland,
7-9 North St David Street,
Edinburgh.
THERE are so many misconceptions in the letter from the Rev David Mumford
(January 7) that it would take too long to counter all of his proposals.
Perhaps I could address two of his points. Firstly, wave generation suffers
from the same limitations as wind generation in that both are weather
dependent and hence unreliable – no wind, no waves. Secondly, there is no
economically viable location for significant additional pumped storage in
Scotland and incidentally, it should be noted that pumped storage is a net
user of electricity rather than a contributor.
Electricity generation strategies should be left to engineers who
understand what they are doing, rather than being set by poorly informed
politicians.
Dr GM Lindsay,
Whinfield Gardens,
Kinross.
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