YOU state that "existing turbines currently produce enough energy to generate 98 per cent of the country's electricity demand" ("Key questions over upgrading of wind farms", Herald editorial, November 20).
This figure is misleading because the wind does not blow 24/7. The average annual output of the entire UK fleet of windmills is no greater than 10 per cent of actual demand. See www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk website for evidence.
And if our current fleet of windmills can produce 98 per cent of demand can someone please explain why we need to erect more of them?
I presume proposed taller windmills to be used in re-powering existing wind farms will require significantly larger bases, meaning much more peatland is likely to be disturbed or destroyed if new bases are built from scratch.
Yet it is recognised that peatland is a valuable carbon sink, therefore it seems logical to re-utilise bases already constructed. If not re-utilised what will become of them?
Our Scottish Government has aspirations to be world leaders in absolutely everything it seems to me. But in doing so are making us a poorer nation as pointed out in your Letters Pages under the headline "Our gullible politicians are promoting and supporting fuel poverty" (November 20)
Brian Bell,
15 Muirpark Road, Kinross.
AS the SNP energy policy blindly backs turbine developments the cost to Scotland is not limited to the scarring of our wonderful hills and mountains but has now made our energy costs the highest in Europe, contributing to extensive family energy poverty being experienced by families
throughout Scotland.
The SNP administration has evolved a subsidy and compensation scheme for renewable energy suppliers that is a dripping roast for the turbine owners and pays them substantial compensation payments for NOT producing electricity.
These costs are added back into our energy bills, leaving many families with the desperate option of whether to heat or eat.
Dennis Forbes Grattan,
3 Mugiemoss Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen.
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