Scotsman letters
John Mclellan asks “Why build wind farms local people don’t want only to pay them billions to stop producing electricity” (Scotsman, 24 January). The real question should be: why build wind farms at all?
It is shocking when government ministers don’t know that wind turbines do not produce any energy at all, full stop. Stand one in a giant hangar and see what happens, or doesn’t. Place an array of solar panels in a dark hangar and see what happens, or doesn’t.
The first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be converted from one form to another. “Renewables” should accurately be called energy collectors or converters. They collect energy that already exists, wind or sunlight, and convert what little there is into electricity. Therein lies the perpetual problem. If it is dark, still and cold – typical midwinter conditions – there is simply no energy to collect, literally leaving us in the dark! As we frequently discover, in still, frosty weather, wind “energy” is a technological dead end.
Much better sources have what is known as greater energy density. For example, water is 800 times denser than air, so hydro is always going to give much greater conversion than wind. Coal is intrinsically denser than wood, so much more thermodynamically efficient.nuclear wins the energy density stakes hands down.
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright has criticised the UK over its drive for renewables and wryly pointed out that Germany has wasted $500 billion on green energy and now produces 20 per cent less electricity at three times the price. He called the energy transition worldwide“the greatest malinvestment in human history”.
How could that mean anything other than economic decline?
George Herraghty Lhanbryde, Elgin, Moray
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