The British government have committed us to raising two turbines every working day for the next twelve years.This has to be the maddest single decision ever made by ministers. The Secretery of State John Hutton announced that we are to build seven thousand giant offshore turbines by 2020 to meet our EU target on renewable energy.It will be the largest concentration of such industrial monsters in the world.
However Mr Hutton's officials warned him that it was not conceivable that we could achieve even a much lower target.This is a strong case of all mouth and no substance as he chose to ingore his officials just to appease Brussels that we in the UK would lead Europe on climate change without considering the cost.
Each turbine would be 850 feet tall and be able have a capacity of 33 gigawatts which is a hefty chunk of the 75 GW ofpower we need at peak demand. The cost of these turbines is estimated at £1.6 billion per GW of capacity which represents a bill of £50 billion. Because the wind blows intermittently, they would only generate a third or less of capacity, therefore the 33GW figure comes down to 11GW.
To generate the same power from carbon free nuclear energy would only require six or seven nuclear power stationed at a cost of £20 billion. Another twelve nuclear power stations would be required to provide the remaining two thirds costing another £30 billion putting the real cost of Mr Hutton's fantasy at nearer £80 billion which would be passed on to the consumer.
Nothing better demonstrates the futility of windpower than the fact that Denmark, with the highest concentration of turbines in the world, must export more than 80% of its wind generated electricity to Norway to prevent its grid being swamped when the wind is blowing, while remaining heavily reliant the rest of the time on power from Sweden and Germany.
In 2002 the Danes decided to build no more turbines have learnt their lesson. We British still have to learn it. Every time we hear the over used word "GREEN" we should remember it has another meaning: someone who is naively foolish and dangerously gullible.
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