Lincolnshire Voice

Dear Peter,

I listened to your broadcast the day before yesterday on wind farms and the gentleman talking in support of wind farms - trying to support the unsupportable. His argument was shot full of holes, some of the main ones being:-

1) majority of people support wind farms

Where was this survey done - the centre of London? City people will never be cursed by wind turbines and therefore are unlikely to be against them. Try coming to the Lincolnshire Wolds where peoples' lives, enviroment and house prices are being directly impacted by these monstrous, totally useless machines. With few exceptions they are 100% against wind turbines. What would Londoner's reaction be if the government announced that wind turbines were to be erected in every park in London? Would they then be so pro?

2) power from turbines and long term plans for more

This man's statistics, the government's and the actual truth for both power supplied and wind farm future are miles apart. This man claims that 3421 British wind farms provide electrical power for well over 2 million homes - about 7.5%. The government's claim is for 5%. In reality it is under 2%

This man claims that we are "about half way there to the number of wind farms that will eventually be installed". The government has given a pledge to the EU that 45% of our power will come from wind turbines. As we are actually only producing for less than 2%, to meet the government's target we will need to install about 25 times nore wind turbines than we already have. - another 85000 wind turbines

3) wind turbines are quiet and have no effect on local house owners

Tell that to the house wife living at Wainfleet. They suffer grinding noises, like a washing machine 24 hours per day, seven days a week - even louder when the blades are not turning. Their dining room suffers constant 'shadow flicker' as the blades from the nearest turbine as they cut across the sunshine. The arrival of the turbines has produced a 30% drop in their house value. All this and the authorities have the temerity to claim that there is no impact on local housing.

4) wind power is free, efficient, has very small effect on household bills

Wind power is not free, it costs about 14 p per unit compared to nuclear power generated electricity of 5p per unit. It is not efficient, hardly ever working to maximum efficiency and not working at all for 10% to 15% of the time. It is very, very unreliable - in the bitter cold of December 2010, the coldest winter we have had for many years, wind turbines did not move at all due to there being no wind. The total output for the UK at that time is reputed to be just 30KW - enough to heat just 10 3KW electric kettles. If wind power is so great, why did the Victorians drop it like a hot brick as soon as they had invented steam power? If wind power is so good why aren't all of oue big ships driven by sail? Instead of finding new ways to generate power. We seem to have gone overboard for a technology that was abandoned 150 years ago.

5) wind power is helping to save our planet from world warming

What nonsense. Since the installation of the world's first wind turbine up to all of the world's turbines today, the total saving in CO2 gases was completely nullified by just four days of the Icelandic volcanic eruption. With over 200 active volcanoes in the world the positive effect of wind farms on reducing CO" is about effective as a tea spoon of suagr poured into the North sea

6) chronic fuel poverty or French nuclear powered electricity

As wind power takes over more of our supply, either the government (ie our money) will have to constantly increase it's subsidies - producing chronic fuel poverty or wind power will have to fight , in an open market, for it's share of the business. If you were an electricity distribution company and under pressure to increase profits, where your single biggest expense is raw electricity, what would you buy? British wind electricity at 14 p per unit or French nuclear electricity at 5p per unit.? The answer is obvious which would make our wind farms redundant and our countryside will have been destroyed for nothing.

In addition if British wind electricity continues to be subsidised our power costs will escalate through the roof. This will make our industry even less competitive and much more manufacture will move off shore making our out of work situation much worse. (The Far East is far too canny to go in for such wild cat schemes as wind powered electricity generation)

7) wind turbines and their adverse effect on wild life

Wildlife comes at the bottom of the heap in financial matters and therefore little has been said about them so far. So we have glossed over the deaths of bats and large birds such as swans, geese, herons, owls and hawks etc. However, it has now been revealed that wind turbines are having an impact on our fish stocks and therefore the incomes of many people and of Britian itself. Apparantly North Sea wind turbines are being erected where there are shallow seas. These, however, are the breeding grounds for North Sea fish which, disturbed by the vibrations of the turbines, are failing to breed.

When oh when will our governments (not mine, Ed!) admit that they have made a huge booboo in opting for wind farms?
RENEWABLES - YES
WIND FARMS - ABSOLUTELY, DEFINITELY NO

Malcolm Bouchier