Wind turbines - your letters

There were three excellent letters about wind energy in last week's Stroud Life, but I was concerned that all three wrote about climate change affecting future generations.

Let's get real – climate change will affect us (it already is), not just future generations.

If we don't act now, by 2040 our world will be considerably hotter.

This will lead to failed crops, disruption to the ecosystem, resource shortages, starvation, mass migration and wars, and so on. And I'll be 67.

I support wind power because it is a step in the right direction to saving my skin, let alone future generations.

In fact I am thinking of setting up a campaign group called Save Berkeley Vale (From Climate Change).

Mark Epton Stonehouse

YOU report on two enterprising young people setting out to save the world from global warming (Stroud Life, September 30).

Might we now try to find some young (or older) people who will begin to save us all from the ridiculous, unscientific panic over the bogus linkage of carbon dioxide to world temperatures? That panic has been worked up by the media, politicians and some computer-addicted scientists across the past 20 years.

I hope the excellent new book by Australian geologist Prof Ian Plimer, Heaven and Earth – Global Warming: The Missing Science (Quartet, London 2009), will soon become required reading in schools and colleges. Then young (and older) people can turn their attention to the real problems of civilisation: wars, poverty, over-consumption of resources and terribly dangerous nuclear programmes of all kinds.

George Monbiot has gone incandescent over Prof Plimer's book, which proves it must be a real step towards climate sanity.

Roger Franklin, Horsley

WE are all aware of the need to use less energy to reduce our carbon emissions.

Our government is encouraging us all to switch to CFLs (the energy saving light). However, for some reason they have missed out on the halogen spot light or down light, which uses as much as 50 watts of electricity yet doesn't fall under the ban.

A new generation of LED lighting products is coming on to the market. But most of the LED light bulb alternatives are made in China. Why can't we do the same here? The reason is because we take for granted it's cheaper to buy from China.

John Barnes, Stroud

AS a retired chartered electrical engineer with extensive knowledge of the electricity supply industry, I am concerned the public do not have the full story on wind turbines. I refer to an article in Stroud Life where you say eight proposed wind turbines would generate 40 million, million units of electricity per year. This is just not true, the real figure is 40,000MWh per year. One thousand times less.

The Central Electricity Generating Board built a 200 Kwatt pilot unit at Carmarthen Bay to assess the feasibility of generating power by this means. This was put into operation in November 1982. I have some of the data on the output of this generator and the load factor for January 1982 was, in fact, less than 10%.

The cost per installed Kwatt of generating capacity is not much different to that of a 1,200Mw nuclear power station, which is not subject to the vagaries of the UK wind pattern and generates at full capacity for most of the time. France has 58 operational nuclear power stations with a proven safety record.

Many are sited on their northern coast. We buy electricity from France via the cross channel link – obviously generated by nuclear energy.

No mention is ever made of the fact all wind turbines, even under zero wind conditions, require a constant electrical supply from the national grid to feed the control system, the three blade feathering motors and the yaw motor (which heads the turbine into the win).

This supply is necessary to hold the system in readiness for when the wind is sufficient to allow the turbine to operate. In the case of high winds the blades are automatically feathered to stop the rotor and ensure the safety of the systems.

The load factor of on shore wind turbines in the UK is about 28% due to the vagaries of British wind (ie they only generate full power for 28% of the time).

Burning fossil fuels must be reduced but nuclear energy is the only practical option, otherwise the lights will go out.

Alan Grindrod, Stonehouse