Dear Editor
Utter Chaos – the writings on the wall
They say every cloud has a silver lining and thus Storm Gerrit must be the ‘writing on the wall’ for weather dependent offshore wind generation disciples. Indeed, supporters such as Dr Jonathan F Dean, Director of the charity Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW) and who champions large scale offshore wind generation, must surely be reassessing their position in the light of over 30,000 having lost power in Ceredigion, Wales – many others across the UK also lost power. In Ayrshire the blades were torn off a wind generator, which then burst into flames in high winds – as my wife (daughter of a Welsh sea captain) and any mariner will tell Dr Dean and CPRW, worst things happen at sea.
Where we live in Ceredigion we not only lost our mains electricity for a while, but at breakfast time there were no digital (DAB) radio services, although FM was still available.
It takes little imagination to recognise the utter chaos that would result if the UK was predominantly reliant on weather dependent electricity generation, and the horrors that would be inflicted on our modern society. Additionally, large scale wind generation will require more pylons, which will make the electricity network much more susceptible to solar storms such as the 1989 Quebec power outage.
For the foreseeable future we should be employing the relatively cheap, quick to build gas-fired and efficient power stations of the CCGT type, complimented with hydro and tidal schemes. There should be a 10 year plan for electricity from orbit to complement existing television from space – of course fusion being the holy grail of power generation. Let us hope Dr Dean and CPRW see sense in 2024, and may I wish readers a Happy New YEAR.
Dave Haskell
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