Letters

With thousands of self-righteous, hypocritical, millionaire delegates jetting in to COP30 in Brazil to tell the rest of us what to do. What comes next? Prominent German energy expert Dr Lars Schernikau has said: “The energy transition in its current form, as a grid-scale build out of wind and solar with the goal to replace oil, coal and gas, is probably one of the greatest mistakes that humanity has ever made.”

Millions of ageing wind turbines and solar panels have now passed their use-by dates and are on their way to landfills. While steel, aluminium, copper and other metals can be scavenged from what’s left of a wind turbine carcass, the 10-30 tonne blades filled with highly toxic Bisphenol-a are cut up, crushed and dumped, often illegally.

Solar panels are also secretly buried. Despite claims about panels being recycled, they never are.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) calculates solar panel waste will reach 78 million metric tonnes by 2050!

The pathetically short life expectancy of a wind turbine or solar panel compares miserably with the multigenerational life expectancy of a nuclear-powered plant.

Before we wreck our precious landscapes and seascapes any further, it must be urgently asked, who will constantly renew the “renewables”, and at what astronomical and ecological cost? George Herraghty

Elgin, Moray