The perils of relying on renewable energy
SIR – Wind turbines (report, January 16) are more than just a blot on the landscape, bad as that is.
They kill birds, bats and insects. The materials of which they are made are largely impossible to recycle. They also fail to do their job, leaving countries needing fossil-fuel back-up.
Solar farms, meanwhile, are built on land that should be used to grow food crops. Again, their energy production is intermittent, especially further north.
With these and other arguments against renewable energy, I am puzzled by the attitude of the supposed green lobby towards the question of energy supplies.
Where is power supposed to come from when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow (or blows too hard) if coal, oil and gas have been done away with?
Margaret Robinson
London SE9
SIR – Some weeks ago I read that the City of London Corporation was funding the purchase of 131 acres of farmable land near Spetisbury, in Dorset, for a solar energy farm, with the electricity earmarked for the City of London. Many people in Dorset are unhappy about this.
You now report (January 16) that 2,792 acres of arable land on the border between Suffolk and Cambridgeshire may be purchased, compulsorily, in the push for a solar farm, specifically connected to Burwell National Grid.
Before we desecrate England’s green and pleasant land for the benefit of large cities, we should pause and reflect. How do these plans sit with initiatives to rewild the countryside, plant more trees and reduce air miles? Did the recent outpourings at Cop26 mean nothing at all?
Dr Graham Bowden
Lymington, Hampshire