Stephen Moreton (Letters, 29 February, 4 March) is a great advocate for renewable electricity generation, the most important of which is wind power, as the thousands of wind machines blighting Scotland’s hillsides show.
Emeritus Professor of Physics Wade Allison at the University of Oxford is a fierce critic of wind farms. He states: “Whichever way you look at it, wind power is inadequate. It is intermittent and unreliable; it is exposed and vulnerable; it is weak with a short lifespan.”
He illustrates his argument by comparing the power output of a single nuclear power station with an equivalent generation output by wind farms.
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Assuming a steady wind speed of 20mph the swept area of the number of turbines required to match the power station would be 5.5 million square metres of turbine area. And he adds another little-known fact, that if wind speed halves electricity generation drops by a factor of 8. In addition, it is difficult for National Grid to balance a fluctuating supply, and of course, there are periods of calm.
When you consider that both Labour and the Conservatives are committed to closing down all our gas-fired power stations by 2030 and 2035 respectively, while dramatically increasing demand by mandating battery-powered cars and heat pumps, we are going to be in a pickle in keeping the lights on in the next decade – or sooner.
William Loneskie, Oxton, Berwickshire
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