Wind farms vital to future

Published on 6th December 2007 in Letters

Sir - I read last week's letter by 'Resident of Eastrington' regarding wind farms with dismay - this was another in a series of ill-informed and misleading letters on the subject. We are variously told that wind farm developers are only interested in making money, that wind farms are not economic, that the "companies do not make their money from energy produced, but through taxpayers' subsidy" and that, anyway, they are completely pointless.

Well, there may be some saintly individuals out there who work hard, have no need of money and expect no reward but most of us who go to work do so with the thought of receiving financial recompense. I dare say that wind farm developers are no different. Sadly, it is likely those who work towards the next generation of nuclear or coal power stations are also not simply motivated by altruism.

With regard to the issue of subsidies, I invite 'Resident of Eastrington' to tell us all about this subsidy that wind farm developers allegedly apply for. What is it called and where does one apply for it? I believe we may have a long wait before the answer arrives, because it is my firm understanding that there is no 'wind farm' subsidy available.

There is a government-imposed requirement that 7.9 per cent of the electricity supply must come from renewable resources, but the government has deliberately left it to the free market to decide what is the most economic way of meeting this 'Renewables Obligation'.

Casual observation suggests wind farms must currently be the most economic way to generate electricity from a renewable resource - otherwise we would have seen other types of schemes being built. One might, of course, take the view that governments shouldn't interfere at all with the working of the 'free' market - that companies and individuals should be left to pollute the atmosphere and plunder the earth's resources as they see fit, but this has not been a popular point of view for a long time, if ever.

Regarding the assertion that wind turbines don't produce useful amounts of electricity, I simply refer the reader to Denmark, where they currently generate about 20 per cent of their requirements using wind power, and have plans to increase this substantially.

Simon Froom (Dr)

Snaith