Pontefract Windfarm Action Group

Wind Farms and Carbon Dioxide Savings

posted: June 10, 2008

Emissions, Letter.

Source: Friends of Eden, Lakeland andamp; Lunesdale Scenery

Intuitively it would seem logical that if enough wind farms are built then it must be possible to shut down some coal or gas fired power stations and save carbon dioxide.

But that is not the case.

The Government repeatedly states that they want to see 25 to 33 gigawatts of electricity generated from wind. That is about half of the UK's total electricity requirements. If this amount were ever achieved, it would have to have at least 33 GW of coal or gas back-up. That is because there will be a few days every year when there is no wind - i.e., we would be 33GW short of national demand.

Of course at the moment there exists about 10GW of 'spare' back-up capacity which is used if a major power station breaks down. This is enough to back up the current wind carpet without any extra. However, as the installed wind carpet grows, more and more back-up is needed. In a House of Lords Select Committee Inquiry into the EU's 20% Renewable Energy Target on Monday 17th March 2008, Mr Christopher Barton (Director of the UK Renewable Energy Strategy Project at BERR) said, ‘the intermittency issue is not an insurmountable problem, albeit that surmounting the problem comes with a cost so, for example, there will need to be greater overall generating capacity in the uk as you introduce more intermitent generation.'

So there you have it. Wind power requires that further back-up capacity is constructed and that can only be coal or gas fired.

So much for CO2 savings!

- FELLS newsletter no. 16, Spring 2008

Un-elected officials decide on turbines?

Jun 2 2008 by William Green, The Journal

GORDON Brown is facing a Labour revolt over proposals to hand un-elected officials the final planning decision on major wind farms and other key projects.

Nine of the region's Labour MPs have signed a Parliamentary motion, along with 54 colleagues, expressing alarm over the proposed Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC).

Ministers insist the shake-up will make the planning process faster and cheaper, but the motion - signed by 106 MPs overall - warns it would give the independent IPC "inordinate and unprecedented" powers to push through developments against public opposition.

The changes would move final decisions on planning applications from major wind farms, motorways, airports and power stations in England and Wales to unelected officials and away from ministers accountable to Parliament.

Wind power was useless in blackout

The British Wind Energy Association claims that there are more than 2,000 turbines in the UK with an installed capacity of 2,500 megawatts. Where was all this megawattage when it was needed on Tuesday, when 500,000 homes were blacked out as Sizewell B and eight other power stations shut down?

The answer is simple: the 2,000 turbines were impotent and would have made the situation worse had the grid operators tried to feed in their spurious outputs.

Coincidentally, Government figures describing the CO2 savings achieved in 2007 show no contribution from wind. The wind industry received nearly £320 million during 2007 in subsidies - from us, the consumers.

Bob Graham, Inchberry, Morayshire

Telegraph

1 June 2008