Wind power generation comes at huge cost

Sir, – In the article (Coal power a waste as green gets cheaper, Courier, March 12) you quote the think tank Carbon Tracker’s claim that electricity from coal powered generation is now more costly than for wind powered renewables.

Not mentioned are the subsidies needed for generating such electricity, nor its intermittency, nor the constraint payments for times when the wind is too strong or does not blow, when payments are made for not generating.

The costs of servicing and of demolition after, typically, only 15 years’ lifespan are also left out.

Wind turbines are not at all “green” since more carbon dioxide is put out in manufacture and in installation, which needs many tons of concrete and steel and seriously damages the land and needs great numbers of trees felled.

Rare elements, cobalt and lithium, mined in dangerous, filthy circumstances in Africa go unmentioned.

The huge, nonrecyclable blades, have to be put in landfill after demolition.

The damage by turbine blades to avians, especially protected birds and bats, is a huge drawback.

Low-frequency noises cause well-documented health hazards to those living anywhere near the spinning turbines.

Overall, the choice of subsidy dependent wind turbine-based electricity generation has proved a mistake.

As with many substitutes for present methods, they are neither “greener” nor financially or functionally cheaper than at present. Legal costs to councils for appeal litigation are an additional, “hidden” waste of taxpayers’ money.

Review of windpowered electricity generation is long overdue in view of its manifold disappointments.

Many believe the time has come to end this very costly, inefficient, harmful means of electricity generation.

Charles Wardrop. 111 ViewlandsRd West, Perth.