Linda Holt, spokesperson for national campaign group Scotland Against Spin called the report “propaganda – paid for and produced by a parasitic industry which has grown fat on consumer subsidy.”
She added:
“The report is full of misleading claims and glaring omissions. Wind energy only looks cost-effective if you ignore the expense of incorporating it into the grid – the massive infrastructure costs of connecting thousands of disparate generators plus the cost of back-up for when the wind isn’t blowing at the correct speed, in other words a whole system of conventional power stations.
“As for economic value, the fact is every subsidised job in the wind industry costs two or three jobs in the wider economy. The biggest hole in UK Renewable’s stats is revenue and jobs from manufacturing turbines. It’s next to none in the UK because it’s all foreign companies with the jobs located outside the UK.
“What is actually shocking is how few UK jobs all this massive wind development has created. Leaving out jobs in development and construction which are obviously temporary because we can’t go on building wind farms forever, permanent jobs in the operation and maintenance of wind farms across the whole of the UK amount to only 3,384.
“By comparison, the nuclear industry employs 54,000 highly skilled people throughout the UK, with more than 80,000 jobs being directly or indirectly linked with the industry.http://www.niauk.org/facts-and-information-for-nuclear-energy
“This is a blatant political intervention in the election because the wind industry is terrified a Conservative government will cut subsidies and stop imposing wind farms on communities which don’t want them.
“Incorporating ever-increasing quantities of subsidised wind energy into our electricity mix is inflating prices for consumers and industry, and becoming ever less sustainable. For any UK government to do what the wind industry wants is both anti-democratic and against the national economic interest.”
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