LET’S hope Vicky Allan’s article (“‘Kept in the dark’? Concern deepens over Scottish mineral mines”, January 19) serves as a wake-up call for “green” campaigners.
In fact, many graphic documentaries have pointedly revealed that wind and solar installations are entirely parasitic: they cannot be produced without using enormous quantities of fossil fuels. A sobering reality check for the deluded is long overdue.
A small, ever-so-green, 100 MW wind farm needs 30,000 tons of iron ore; 50,000 tons of concrete; and 900 tons of non-recyclable plastic. For the same power from an ever-so-green solar farm, you need to increase that by 150%.
An electric car battery weighs half a ton – making just one requires shifting 250 tons of earth somewhere else on the planet. Most are bought as second “virtue” cars by the rich metropolitan elite.
All require what are called rare earths, so a phenomenal 200-2,000% increase in toxic mining, processing and shipping is required somewhere else on the planet, usually from unregulated regimes with very lax environmental standards.
Solar and wind have weatherdependent limits but we need energy all the time, so we have to have permanent back-up. The giant Tesla factory in Nevada would take 500 years to make enough batteries to supply the USA with electricity for one day.
After 30 years and countless billions in subsidies, wind and solar supply less than 3% of the world’s energy. On top of that, like all machines, “renewables” are built from non-renewable materials – and have to be repaired and replaced time and time again, so definitely not a one-off cost.
The International Renewable Energy Agency calculates that solar energy goals for 2050 to meet the Paris Accord will result in old-panel disposal constituting more than double the tonnage of all today’s global plastic waste.
The environmental cost? To accommodate 2,000 MW of gas or nuclear power generation requires the same area as two 18-hole golf courses, whereas accommodating 2,000 MW of wind power requires an area the size of Belgium.
The resultant habitat loss and wildlife slaughter is simply incalculable. Instead of “saving the planet” rampaging renewables are actually devouring it.
George Herraghty,
Lhanbryde.
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