I READ in the Review another development in the great wind turbine being proposed near St Briavels. This proposal is announced in the same misleading language and patronising tone that leads you to think the business people behind it are trying to save the planet and anyone who disapproves of their ideas is in league with the devil. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Firstly, this is a commercial project selling electricity to the National Grid. It is not a small project producing power for local people. We are led to believe that it will be electricity for local homes, but you will note the term equivalent to 180 residential properties, is used. When sold into the national grid the power could be used to light up Blackpool Tower, we are just being coaxed into believing that it is for the local good.?If local homes were supplied they would have a very poor and erratic supply. Ofgem and the London Metropolitan Business School have demonstrated that 129 of the 235 onshore wind farms in Britain in 2009 run at less than 25 per cent of capacity because of insufficient or irregular wind, that is often generated when least needed. Forest of Dean schemes we have seen so far, for singe or small numbers of large turbines are even more inefficient and costly.
So why are these schemes being put forward? The simple answer is subsidy. In a desperate attempt to compensate for lack of proper strategic planning the government has thrown huge amounts of public money into ridiculous 'feed in tariffs' for electricity from renewable sources. These were intended to provide incentives for large off-shore turbine farms but have provided a loophole for exploitation. The small schemes provide a miniscule contribution to overall renewable targets but have the opportunity to make a few people very wealthy. £283,000 pounds can be earned in subsidies for one turbine that is only 30 per cent efficient. Who pays? We do. £1 billion pounds per year added to our fuel bills or according to Ofgem, an average of £32.50 to your electricity bill.
The great sadness is that to gain access to sites, companies are offering farmers' rental agreements worth a minimum of £6-10,000 per year, per turbine, just to play host to a single wind turbine. This guaranteed income for up to 20 years is a great attraction to financially troubled farmers. The huge irony is that farmers are being encouraged to take this option at a time when subsidies would be much better used to encourage our country to grow its own food. We are now, as a country, 70 per cent dependant on imported food. Imagine the energy cost of all the transport involved in importing food.
The great wind turbine debate is distracting from innovation and investment in other renewable fuels. There are now a whole host of companies with lovely green sounding names, backed by pictures of wind turbines lit up by lovely blue skies setting out to kid you. It beggars belief that Foresters should suffer both financially and environmentally for the 'eco-ego' benefit of very few. The latest wheeze in the campaign of persuasion is to give cash to those who live under the blight of turbines. The small number that benefit will be nothing compared to the cost of us all of the wind turbine scam.?Remember you can be green and say no to 'turbs' on your doorstep, and hopefully our planners and councillors will see what is in the longer term interests of the Forest. – Joyce Waldegrave, Neds Top, Oldcroft.