Sir, – The 30 or so businesses supporting the offshore wind turbine
development opposed by the RSPB are correct and justified only in that Fife
and the wider areas of east-central Scotland desperately need more jobs and
local supply-chain activities.
However, the offshore wind turbine development they seek is a terribly
wasteful and damaging prospect.
Wind-powered electricity generation, marketed as beneficial to the planet’s
climate, to our electricity supplies and to our jobs and industries, has
proved to be a near-complete “broken reed” in all these allegedly useful
dividends.
Any reduction in greenhouse gas output from fossil-fuel free generation is
dwarfed by the manufacturing processes of the hardware, which anyway takes
place abroad.
The intermittency and unpredictability of usable generation of electricity,
which cannot be stored, makes developers’ claims of the turbines’ ability
to supply so many houses untrue.
The money for this terrible waste, from electricity bill payers, should be
put to useful purposes.
The failed wind turbine experiment, on and offshore, should not have been
started, as scientific advisers warned the then Scottish Executive.
The scientists were concerned by our inability to store enough electricity.
The nation needs the money for useful purposes.
Isabel and Charles Wardrop.
111 Viewlands Road West,
Perth.
Respect must be earned
Sir, – How astonishing to read that a wind developer is asking the RSPB to
respect the Scottish consenting process and abandon any further proceedings.
The RSPB – not known for its objections to windfarms – must have a solid
case for opposing these three offshore monstrous projects which they
believe will decimate bird populations.
The developer also reels off huge job losses if the project doesn’t go ahead.
So often we hear of these potential jobs but has anyone checked out what
the reality actually is after consent has been given?
Do the jobs promised equate to the jobs created and where do the people
come from who get them? Local or shipped in from overseas?
Perhaps the Scottish Government could commission a study to prove that what
the public is told comes to fruition and if it doesn’t, prohibit the
bandying around of fantasy figures to try to gain public support.
Returning to the issue of respect, I have yet to be aware of a wind
developer that respects local opinion or local authority decisions.
They will fight communities and local councils tooth and nail to get their
often despised developments consented with no consideration to the distress
and financial burden that they cause.
Lyndsey Ward.
Darach Brae,
Breakachy,
Beauly.
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