Wales in revolt over mammoth wind farm scheme

[-:Undertaker:-]

Wales in revolt over mammoth wind farm scheme

The Welsh Assembly's plans to install 800 giant wind turbines in mid-Wales make no economic sense, says Christopher Booker.

Windfarms: expensive, ugly and useless

On Tuesday the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff will see the biggest demonstration so far in Britain against the disaster now being set in train across the land by the Government's infatuation with wind power. Nowhere is this more obvious than in mid-Wales, where the Assembly wishes to see the hills covered with up to 800 giant wind turbines, up to 415ft high, visible over hundreds of square miles. Recently In Parliament, Glyn Davies, the Tory MP for Montgomeryshire, spoke about the anger this is arousing locally, recounting how one recent meeting called at short notice in Welshpool had drawn 2,000 people.

Mr Davies described how the problem is not only the turbines, but the need for two vast substations and 100 miles of steel pylons, up to 150ft high, to carry the electricity into Shropshire to connect with the National Grid. But although he may have spoken eloquently about the visual and social impact of this project, he failed to spell out its nonsensical economic implications. To build 800 two-megawatt turbines would cost at least £1.6 billion, plus, it is estimated, another £400 million for the pylons and sub-stations. With the output of Welsh turbines last year averaging less than 20 per cent of their capacity, thanks to the intermittency of the wind, the power produced by this £2 billion project will average out at little more than 300MW.

Yet contrast this with the 882MW produced by Centrica's new Langage gas-fired power station near Plymouth, costing just £400 million. This single plant, built for a fifth of the money, covering a few acres, will produce nearly three times as much electricity, without disfiguring one of the most beautiful landscapes in Britain. Those Welsh turbines, costing us all £120 million a year in subsidy, will produce power that could have been generated without subsidy at a 15th of the cost. How many of those Assembly members on Tuesday will manage to step outside the bubble of illusion surrounding wind power, to recognise just what insanity they are being made party to?

Now just run those figures through your head a minute and then think that despite the growing debt (and yes, the national debt of the United Kingdom is forecast by the government itself to continue to rise onwards to 2015 and that doesn't even include Brown's PFI schemes he left us with) this government continues with lunatic policies such as this which will lead to the lights going out. But you can't just blame them for their incompetence, it stems from EU energy targets which force this country to commit itself to ridiculous energy schemes which don't even work leaving aside whether you even agree with the AGW thesis anyway.

Ed Miliband: change you can believe in?

So the question must be, what will Ed Miliband do? ah that's right, nothing - because as Climate Change minister not only did he do the exact same, he left us with a £18bn a year climate change bill that is still in place and which the Unconservative Party refuses to repeal because it too not only believes in this flat earth nonsense, but as a member of the EU we don't even have a choice anymore.

Thoughts?

[JerseySafety]

Wow. That's a bit over the top tbh.

But if it's for the future, I suppose it'll be good. hopefully.

[GommeInc]

This reminds me of the nuclear argument. They may as well reinstate some nuclear power plants in areas around the country - it's relatively safe, you get a lot of power and power plants do not take up as much space as this large number of turbines. I'm not sure why they think wind power is a suitable, sustainable source of power, especially in the middle of a land mass. If they really wanted to have wind turbines, chuck them out to see so we do not need to see them AND the Welsh countryside can be left undisturbed. Wind power isn't advanced enough to be used en-mass like this, it's only use for the moment is for domesticated use at best.

[Mathew]

Wind power isn't advanced enough to be used en-mass like this, it's only use for the moment is for domesticated use at best.

I somewhat agree with this. I feel a small turbine on your house with a couple of solar panels to help contribute to your electricity input is a brilliant idea, but I generally don't think throwing loads of them up in the countryside is having many benefits. While I do find them interesting (and I think it's merely a different TYPE of landscape as opposed to an "uglier" one...) the way forward in my opinion is nuclear.

Nuclear power won't run out. It takes minimal amounts of the Earth's natural resources and they are GENERALLY safe, especially in a state like the UK which doesn't have much threat of Earthquakes and the likes, as the Japanese found out a couple of months ago.

[GommeInc]

I somewhat agree with this. I feel a small turbine on your house with a couple of solar panels to help contribute to your electricity input is a brilliant idea, but I generally don't think throwing loads of them up in the countryside is having many benefits. While I do find them interesting (and I think it's merely a different TYPE of landscape as opposed to an "uglier" one...) the way forward in my opinion is nuclear.

Nuclear power won't run out. It takes minimal amounts of the Earth's natural resources and they are GENERALLY safe, especially in a state like the UK which doesn't have much threat of Earthquakes and the likes, as the Japanese found out a couple of months ago.

Indeed, I have a friend with a wind turbine and a few solar panels, they do a decent job but still rely on other forms of energy - they're only good for reducing cost, rather than taking over unfortunately

Interestingly, what happened in Japan wasn't as bad as it could of been. It was handled rather well considering the force of the earthquake. It should work quite well in the UK, provided we look after the stations and we do not make them typically British - break downs every 5 minutes or not working at all

[Eoin247]

Maybe i'm on my own on this, but i personally think that wind farms look nice. I constantly hear people complaining about the sight of them.

That said it does seem to be a silly time to be doing this. Especially when you look at the figures you've provided. I think more nuclear plants is probably a better idea for you. I was very annoyed when Ireland halted it's plans to go nuclear a few years ago. They stopped the plans due to a few hundred protesters that didn't even represent the views of the majority of the population.

[Inseriousity.]

Maybe i'm on my own on this, but i personally think that wind farms look nice. I constantly hear people complaining about the sight of them.

Just out of curiousity then but why do you think they look nice?

I'm not really a fan of them. They're too big, too bulky and they seem to cost more in reparing them than they save in producing electricity. I'm also not really a believer in climate change but I do think in terms of oil running out that we should invest more in renewable energy resources so that we are prepared for the future. The only question is finding out which is more effective. Atm, all the evidence would point at nuclear (and possibly biofuel but I dont know too much about that)!

[Sarah]

I don't actually mind them, I think they look ok, and when driving through the valleys they look kinda cool on the top of hilly mountains - but I can see how locals would find them annoying. They are meant to be very loud. I think the bad thing about this is the connectors to the national grid - they look very very ugly.

[Chippiewill]

Nuclear power won't run out. It takes minimal amounts of the Earth's natural resources and they are GENERALLY safe, especially in a state like the UK which doesn't have much threat of Earthquakes and the likes, as the Japanese found out a couple of months ago.

The UK is probably more at risk, there was one time where a fuel rod wouldn't go into a nuclear reactor properly so some idiot opened the door the to reactor and tried to ram it in with a piece of scaffolding.. which melted and fused to the uranium fuel rod and the reactor door couldn't be closed. Apart from that glaring failure of logic and other things, yes the UK is very nuclear safe.

[Eoin247]

Just out of curiousity then but why do you think they look nice?

I guess like anything it's kinda hard to explain why. You might like the look of a painting, yet still be unable to say why you like it.

I suppose i like how they look sleek, modern and yet still manage to not really take away from the countryside. They fit in with the countryside well i think. They certainly look better than any power plant.