Unanswered questions behind significant offshore wind farm investment

Sir, – It was encouraging to read some good news in The P&J about the announcement of a significant investment in an offshore wind farm off the Peterhead coastline – especially with an endorsement from Sir Ian Wood rather than just the usual sound bites from career politicians.

Having said that, it makes you wonder where these massive wind turbine structures will be manufactured, which country will be responsible for the maintenance and the decommissioning, and how many highly-paid local jobs will actually be created?

It would also have been useful if the guaranteed strike price for the investment had been published along with the cost of the extra grid connections (more steel forests and substations) to distribute the energy to customers hundreds of miles away – notwithstanding the cost of the extra standby fossil fuel generators which will be required to be switched on when the wind doesn’t blow.

Furthermore, in my view, real transition away from fossil fuels to intermittent energy should not be about doubling the required capacity of electrical generation needed but must be in tandem with the successful development of large-scale energy storage – safe, practical and affordable. Otherwise we will all be poorer and colder.

To try and end on a positive note, at least the optics of the project sound good and the giant turbines are offshore.

Ian Lakin, Aberdeen.

Sir Ian Wood, chaiman of ETZ and ONE, is backing the offshore wind farm.