A Policy Statement from Our Chairman

Let me make this quite clear SOS is not against renewable energy sources! We are realists who wish to balance the needs to reduce our CO2 output against the serious damage that can be done to our environment by a rush to dubious fixes imposed on us by ignorant politicians.

Wind generation is seriously inefficient.  The average load factor throughout Wales (Govt. figures) is 24% of installed capacity.  When Npower claim that their proposed wind factory at Gwynt y Mor will supply power for 500,000 homes they are, to say the least, being economical with the truth. The reality is that the figure should read 125,000 homes but not when they all switch on their electric cookers and only if the wind is blowing! At best, wind can only make a minor contribution to the reduction of C02 emissions. All the time conventional power stations have to be powered up with a spinning reserve while still burning fossil fuels. In Germany while they rely on 15% of their electricity from wind power they have not been able to shut down even one conventional power station.

The Welsh Assembly has a policy that states that is seeking to increase the energy production from renewables to 4 million, million Watt hours by 2010 and 7 million, million Watt hours by 2020. Since their horizons appear to be limited to wind power how does this relate to hardware out to sea?  Well in the case of   turbines off the North Wales coast not at all. The power from these will count toward the English figure not to the Assembly ones! I wonder who thought that little gimmick up?

Make no mistake the plans already announced are just the tip of the iceberg. Wales has a land area of just 8.5% of the total for the UK, while we already have 50% of the UK wind turbines and we are just about to be surrounded by them!

There is a technology that is at this moment being trialled in the Bristol Channel. This is tidal generation with submersible turbines. The conventional way of doing this is to build large barriers across estuaries which is very expensive.  If you consider that a cubic metre of water weighs one tonne the amount of reliable energy that can be collected from a tidal stream is vast.

In 2003 the Wales Tourist Board commissioned a special report into the potential impact of wind farms in Wales. In summary “the Board opposes commercial turbines and wind farms in both primary designated areas (National Parks, Heritage Coast, National Marine Nature  Reserves and Areas of Outstanding  Natural Beauty) and on  natural sites that are clearly visible from the primary designated areas. We consider that elsewhere proposals should demonstrate that there will be no detrimental effect on tourism”. “That the Board oppose the development of offshore wind farms adjoining the coastline which is within a designated Heritage Coast”  “In assessing the suitability of locations for off shore wind farms in the proximity of traditional coastal resort, the effects on tourism should be a material consideration”.

Llandudno, it’s Bay and the Great and Little Ormes is designated as a Natural Heritage Site. Both are Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

The latest illustration that Npower have come up with (see Weekly News 10/11/05) to show the impact they would like us believe that it would have on Llandudno. They deliberately chose a dull day so that the turbines are dark against a grey background. Not how they would appear in real life!

The suggestion by the protagonists of the turbines is that they will be a tourist attraction. Not according to the visitors to the town that we have spoken to. Who wants to look out on an industrial site? We are not talking about pretty windmills here that you would expect to see in say in Holland!

There is a vast amount of information about wind generation that comes to us from Europe. They have a lot of experience from which we can learn. Denmark have stopped their plans for further expansion of wind power because of the reliability problem.  Finland have avoided wind and are now building a nuclear power station to add the four they already have. As a nation they use a lot of electrical power domestically and they require a reliable supply. The Ukraine (home to Chernobyl) are planning eleven new nuclear plants. Again they need a reliability which does not produce any CO2.

The Government are paying lip service to the reduction of CO2 while continuing policies that will have the direct opposite effect.  They are supporting the aviation industry in the unfettered expansion of airports and air travel. Heathrow handles 60 million passengers a year which is expected to increase to 110 million in ten years time.  There are 550 aircraft movements at Heathrow every day!  Luton airport are planning for a tripling of their passenger numbers.  A Jumbo jet making a daily flight to Miami (Disney Land) emits 520,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum. This is just about the amount saved by the Nth. Hoyle wind factory if you include NOX and H2O.

Maybe we could start by following Rome where the Government have just decreed that street and floodlighting should be shut down at night. If we shut down just every other streetlight we could save the output of a fair size power station.

John Lawson-Reay (Chairman).