I AM pleased to see the SNP examining something other than the wasteful
intermittent lunacy of wind farms (“Testing to begin on ‘most powerful’
turbine” The Herald, September 1), but I do wonder if any of its MSPs – or
indeed any of MSPs of other parties – understand what we would require to
replace conventional power such as the recently closed Longannet power
station’s 2.4 GW capacity.
My rough calculations indicate that, due to the poor performance of wind,
we would need to at least double Longannet’s capacity with wind farms to
replace it with wind. To put that into perspective, 4.8GW of wind farms
would cover around 480 square miles, or more simply, all of Fife.
Given the unproven status of tidal turbines, and the long-noted hostility
of the sea to machinery, it will be interesting, to say the least, to see
the performance of this technology. I confess to being less than hopeful
about yet another loudly-hailed new dawn.
As to the WWF’s Lang Banks suggesting the Scotland might become a “fully
renewable nation”, the unreliability of renewables and the monstrous
subsidy regime they require ensure that this is nothing more than a
pipedream. Clearly, such ideologues are more interested in virtue
signalling than in providing the affordable reliable power upon which our
economy and our very society depend.
Alan G Melville,
23 Shaw’s Street, Edinburgh.
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