Letter - Standing up for Wind Turbines

Standing up for Wind Turbines

I would just like to address a few of the points made by the opponents of wind turbines in recent issues. A lot of the arguments were given without any backup – most of them turn out to be rumour, misrepresentation or just plain wrong. Here are a few examples:
"CO2 released during the construction and installation of wind turbines is not paid back over its lifetime." This idea seems to have come from a report in the Daily Mail about small turbines fitted to houses in cities – exactly the worst place to have a wind turbine. Other research suggest that large turbines can pay back their CO2 costs in as little as 6 or 7 months of operation. This myth also misses the point that fossil fuel generation also has CO2 costs during construction, and then adds massively to them throughout its life.
"Wind Turbines are only economical because they are subsidised by consumers." That may be the case at present (though rising fuel prices and reduced costs due to economies of scale and new technologies will change that over time), but so what? If we agree that climate change is a serious issue, and CO2 emissions need to be reduced, then it’s worth paying a bit extra for. The NHS is not ‘economical’, our armed forces are not ‘economical’, schools are not ‘economical’ – should we get rid of all their enforced subsidies as well?
"The intermittent nature of wind means we’ll have to build extra coal or gas power stations as backup." Again technology (old and new) will refute this argument. The National Grid already has to cope with huge fluctuations in supply and demand of electricity. A report from the UK Energy Research Centre in 2006 stated “it is clear that intermittent generation need not compromise the UK electricity system at any level of [wind power] penetration foreseeable over the next 20 years”. This report was written by academics at Imperial College London, reviewing more than 200 reports and studies from around the world. Can the anti-wind brigade back their arguments up with such scientific rigour?
There have been calls for more wind power in the news very recently from, amongst others, the RSPB, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Government and even the Daily Telegraph, which said “the argument is over”.
If only!
Chris Tarpey
Baldersdale