Wind turbines better than CO2 emissions

WRITING from Wales, Mr L J Jenkins thinks it’s unreasonable that wind turbines are being built near him when almost none are being erected in the West Country and the rest of England. I agree, and I would be happy to see them across England based on a national land-use strategy, including where I live.

It’s been said before but it looks like it needs repeating. Of course, wind turbines without other solutions cannot power the UK because the wind is not a constant resource. He provides some analysis of this, but forgets one crucial factor. We won’t be relying on wind alone if we follow the Climate Change Committee’s Net Zero plans.

The key to success with renewable energy is to complement it with energy storage and interconnects to Europe. Even now, there are times where we have more wind energy than we can use and this is why battery storage and green hydrogen facilities are being built. We need more storage and analysis shows this is achievable, given strategic planning. His concern about the fire risk from wind turbines built in forests is a problem that can be managed. In contrast, the fires made more dangerous by global heating in Canada, the west coast of the USA, the Amazon, Australia and southern Europe have proven to be uncontrollable. If he doesn’t like what wind turbines do to our landscape, he should consider the impact of unabated climate change on global ecosystems in 100 years’ time. If he thinks that wind turbines are monstrous, he should ponder on the 37.4 billion tonnes of CO2 that humanity is emitting per year (and rising). We can’t ignore this problem and we have to find solutions.

Simon Edisford

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