ENERGY Secretary Chris Huhne is one of those politicians who spin faster than a windmill in a gale. He expended much electoral energy warning that a Tory government would be disastrous, but once the final ballot box was emptied he leaped into bed with his erstwhile opponents as one of Cameron’s creaky coalition cronies.
Lib Dems sat on Westminster’s opposition benches so long that the green leather seats were permanently dented by their honourable members’ backsides. They sometimes talked out of them, too, but now they’ve crossed to the dark side they must tackle real issues rather than moaning about them.
Mr Huhne is in charge of a crucial UK ministerial brief. There are few more important issues than continuity of energy supply. He’s proving, however, that turning one’s face in opposite directions simultaneously can do nasty things to one’s countenance, not to mention one’s brain.
In a newspaper interview, he said he was the man who would keep the lights burning, trumpeting a massive expansion of onshore and offshore wind turbines as the key to long-term self-sufficiency. He might have added that the moon is made of cheese, Jeremy Kyle is a Free Church minister and Elvis Presley is alive and running an Inverness pizza-parlour.
Yet again, wind turbines are being trotted out as a panacea for our energy ills. When will people realise that inefficient, unreliable, expensive and ugly onshore windfarms are a joke, and not a very funny one?
One letter in the Press and Journal last week passionately supported wind power, warning us of “civil war and environmental destruction” if it isn’t embraced. The writer said: “We need to stop being sentimental and start being practical.”
Precisely so. Sentimental claptrap about onshore windfarm development must stop and the money pouring into desecrating Scotland’s irreplaceable countryside redirected to other renewable-energy projects, such as underwater tidal-flow turbines. Tides are reliable; wind isn’t. Wind energy is as practical as a chocolate teapot.
Each application for monstrous turbines states they will provide electricity for thousands of houses, but I’m unsure where these houses actually are. It certainly doesn’t mean they’ll be supplied solely by any new wind turbine development. Such PR nonsense should be challenged vigorously and statistically and not swallowed whole like a sugared painkiller.
Thankfully, some people are studying the facts. A recent study by Stewart Young, of Caithness Wind Information Forum, showed that most of Scotland’s large wind turbines are performing appallingly, delivering on average just 17% of capacity for five months this year and, for a third of that time, 5% or less. That’s pathetic.
As far as I can see, not a single megawatt of traditional generating capacity has been mothballed by the introduction of wind-generated power, nor is it likely to be. Last Christmas, the wind didn’t blow at all, so without other generation sources it would have been cold turkey and no EastEnders for everyone.
It’s good news that Scotland places a high priority on renewable energy, but wrong that onshore wind power is part of the mix. We have enough reliable tidal power surging round our coasts to keep the lights on for the foreseeable future, efficiently and largely invisibly, not to mention some offshore wind turbine possibilities, so there’s no need to erect any onshore eyesores. It would be more efficient to cut energy use than to expend even greater dollops of it erecting turbines and costly infrastructure miles from where most energy is required. Huge turbines are just money-making devices for those who hide behind a green agenda. Their political backers are mesmerised by them, losing all sense of balance in the process.
Helen McDade, head of policy at conservation charity the John Muir Trust, said she believed “vested interests and blind hope” were behind onshore windfarm developments. She’s absolutely right. The tiny energy gains are more than overshadowed by the huge losses in landscape quality, I reckon.
Mr Huhne is just the latest politician to suffer from excess wind. As MP for Eastleigh, near Southampton, his official website makes interesting reading. It says he and his party “believe passionately in maintaining the character of our long-standing towns and villages”.
It adds: “Our local environment is priceless, and Chris Huhne and the Liberal Democrats have an outstanding record in protecting, conserving and improving the natural environment.”
If a monstrous windfarm is an improvement to a priceless local environment and the Beauly-Denny power line is a way of protecting it, I’m the Archbishop of Canterbury.
How many windfarms dot the energy-greedy Sussex, Hampshire and Dorset coasts? Almost none. Cynical ministers are considerably more numerous and as reliable as the weather.
Mr Huhne said: “The lights will not go out on my watch.”
Check that watch closely, Chris. Time’s up for your hilltop turbine policy. Like a flatulent goldfish it’s all wind and no practical use.