UK climate change programme : memoranda relating to the inquiry submitted to the Committee / Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Environment, Transport, and Regional Affairs Committee.
Date:
1999
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Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: UK climate change programme : memoranda relating to the inquiry submitted to the Committee / Environment, Transport and Regional Affairs Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    104 THE ENVIRONMENT, TRANSPORT AND REGIONAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE 15. Tony Blair, on his recent trip to China with Heseltine, clinched a deal for Britain to build a hugh coal-fired power station which will burn tens of thousands of tons of Chinese coal in the next decades and winds carrying its pollution will spread over the globe. This makes even less sense for hardware to be dumped all over our countryside in the form of massive wind turbines which will offset the emissions by near zero. How does this square with the Government’s commitment to reducing CO, emissions? Are we to understand that our un-renewable landscapes are to be desecrated for very short-term gain just so that turbine manufacturers and developers can benefit from this falsely created market? 16. In 1997, in a nationwide press release, the Wind Energy Industry proclaimed that in 1996 a “record” 505 million units of electricity were produced from over 550 wind turbines. To put this apparently impressive figure into perspective I should explain that this was 0.15 per cent of the UK’s total supply for 1996. Moreover, the average annual increase of supply in electricity from 1992-97 (and since the advent of wind “farms’) has been 2.4 per cent. So, just to meet the average annual increase would necessitate a 16-fold rise in wind power! 17. The Anglesey Aluminium Metal Ltd needs 220MW of constant, uninterrupted, reliable power. The unreliable, average output of 22 wind “farms” of the size of Carno, Wales (the largest one in Europe) would merely match the needs of Aluminium Metal Ltd. Owing to the unpredictable, intermittent nature of the wind it can never replace the reliable, constant 220MW of conventional power necessary for the functioning of the factory. Deprived of electricity for over six hours the plant would be damaged to such an extent that it would be uneconomic to re-open it. The factory supports 630 jobs and about twice that number in associated jobs. 18. Over four million new houses are to be built during the next 15 years. Their construction will require even more energy and a subsequent rise in consumption by householders. This means that the proportion of renewable energy from commercial windpower will also have to rise in accordance with the Government’s policy. So 6 per cent of energy from windpower by the year 2010 will need to be much higher than at present as the consumption of electricity will be much greater. Are there predicted figures for that year? 19. In Germany over 90 eminent scientists, lecturers and writers have supported the “Darmstadt Manifesto” published in Bonn on I September 1998. This document illustrates how commercial wind “farms” are an environmental disaster and no solution to our pollution problems. 20. The Government Inspector, David Lavender, recently dismissed National Wind Power’s Appeal to put the largest wind “farm” in England on Barningham High Moor. Summing up he said: “it seems to me that the individual contribution to energy generation needs from High Moor would be insignificant and unreliable, and that pollution savings would be both correspondingly small and uncertain.” He concluded that he could find “nothing to persuade me that the desirability of exploiting a clean, renewable energy resource at this prominent skyline site outweighs other important policy considerations, which include avoiding damage to attractive areas of landscape.” 21. Government figures for windpower up to the end of June 1998 show an average output of capacity at 26.7 per cent of a total 318 MW of installed capacity (UK) which is about 85MW. This would not even be enough to run the QE2 at maximum power. The QE2 generates 90MW when running at maximum power— sufficient to light up the whole of Southampton! 22. To shift an Inter City electric train out of the sidings would require 16 600KW wind turbines. 23. “It would take two to three wind turbines (600KW each) to compensate for the emissions of one 15-ton heavy goods vehicle.” 24. Commercial land-based wind “farms” are the cheapest, quickest “fix” to be seen to be “green” but in reality are environmentally disastrous red herrings. It surely must be a political aberration that “in order to save the country it is necessary to destroy it” 5 January 1999 ‘Questions and Answers regarding the Use of Wind Energy in Germany, by Professors Imboden, Binswanger and Wolfrum. =10 22118999 ISBN O | | | | | | | | Printed in the UK by The Stationery Office Limited 2/99 403401 78344