THE recent period of cold windless weather, a “dunkelflaute” (a German word referring to a period of winter weather with low light and little to no wind), should serve as lesson to energy policy makers. Temperatures plummeted right across the UK and the thousands of onshore and offshore turbines struggled to meet 2% of demand. These dunkelflautes are not uncommon during the winter months, and as it gets colder and wind fails we pay extortionate amounts to keep the lights on as reliable generation has to step in.
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Our governments’ solution? To triple onshore and offshore wind so we can watch in disbelief as treble the amount of turbines we have now are generating nothing, probably drawing from the grid to keep their oils fluid or running their own diesel generators as the temperature drops and the costs per MWh soars for the consumer.
The only reliable thing about wind power is its unreliability. We can only hope our elected representatives wake up to the folly of relying on the weather, which by their own admission is becoming more unpredictable, for our energy needs before rural Scotland is needlessly engulfed in concrete and steel.
Lyndsey Ward
Spokeswoman, Communities B4 Power Companies
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