COLETTE Douglas Home (“Halt onshore turbines that are blowing such an ill
wind”, The Herald, January 6) is right to call for an objective strategy on
curbing carbon emissions but wrong to ask for a blanket ban on building
more onshore turbines.
If potentially disastrous climate change is to be averted then we need to
limit the levels of carbon dioxide equivalent in the atmosphere. In
practical terms in the UK this means planning for no more fossil fuel use
for energy as well as looking at all the ways in which energy consumption
can be reduced, from better insulation to people living much closer to
their work.
The technical answers to problems of intermittent wind generation are
fairly straightforward. In Scotland there is capacity for more pumped
storage schemes. Better grid connections both nationally and
internationally would allow both for effective access to less intrusive
wind farm sites and for widening the area in which renewable energy can be
used and shared. The development of options such as liquid air storage that
can be sited on wind farms would help reduce the need for visually invasive
grid developments.
If future electricity generation and the grid were in public ownership then
it would be much easier to plan effectively and efficiently for energy
supplies over the next 30 years. As it is, governments have to resort to
selective bribery to persuade companies, many of which pursue short term
profit, and landowners to spend money on renewable energy. As Ms
Douglas-Home notes, this can lead to windfall profits for windfarm
landlords. It also leads to high prices for consumers and, at the UK level,
ridiculously high price guarantees to the energy industry to build new
nuclear power stations or provide adequate capacity to avert blackouts.
The private sector does not take the necessary longer term view for it to
invest adequately in areas such as wave and tidal energy, both of which are
much less intermittent than wind. The recent demise of Pelamis is striking
evidence of this.
If Scotland and the UK are to move towards stopping using fossil fuels for
energy, then wind will need to be providing some 15 kilowatt hours per
person per day. This is significantly more than at present. The knowledge
is in place to produce a clear nationwide plan of areas in which wind
turbines can be accepted, areas where there is doubt and areas where they
are unacceptable. Such a plan would bring together technical data (wind
speeds and so on) and environmental and community concerns (so not in
national parks or sites of special scientific interest) and would give
clear guidance as to how the grid should be developed and where local
storage facilities were required.
The Rev David Mumford,
St. Andrew’s Rectory,
9 Castle Street,
Brechin.
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