Drawbacks of wind turbines

 

Sir,

It seems that wind turbines have other drawbacks that have not yet been considered.

During the cold spell a turbine in Lincolnshire had a blade ripped off in mysterious circumstances. Some speculated that it was a result of an alien encounter.

 Witnesses reported seeing strange lights hovering above the wind farm on the night the blade was damaged. It seemed that a fleet of UFOs were coming to invade our peaceful planet!

However a more prosaic explanation is that turbine gearboxes are prone to failure and need replacing every few years. Furthermore turbines may endanger wildlife and kill bats by causing their lungs to implode. They also annoy so called NIMBYS in the countryside who do not wish to their pristine green Albion tarnished by the imposing structures.

 Still we have a large quota of renewable energy to implement and wind turbines are a good source of clean energy: but only when the wind is blowing.

 During this recent freezing spell caused by an anti-cyclone, the wind has not blown at all in this country for several weeks! Furthermore during the recent blackouts caused by various systems failures, not one of the UK’s 2,000 wind turbines came to the rescue.

 Indeed, if they had managed to input any energy the situation might have been exacerbated.

 Although I like the idea of clean energy, I am also a realist. The technology is still in its infancy and I see problems ahead when the UK has to close nine coal fired power stations to comply with the EU directive on emissions.