Windfarm Walk 2

An interesting and enjoyable day on Monday, being shown round Lochindorb and the Dava by local campaigners against the wind farms being proposed for the area. When you stand on the highpoint of the B9007 across the moor, or on the shores of the loch, you are surrounded by one of the most unspoilt landscapes I have seen for a while. The visual impact of so many wind turbines right across the hillscape - not to mention the access roads that will need to be built - will be huge.

If we are serious about tackling climate change we need to increase our use of renewable energy sources. Wind farms have a big role to play - or so the current political consensus argues - and I can certainly testify that the Dava is windy. Or at least it was on Monday!

Which goes to the heart of the argument made by the local campaigners I met. They argue that the intermittent nature of wind-power generation will actually increase the reliance on non-renewable sources (coal and oil) by requiring such baseload capacity to be available for when the wind isn't blowing enough (or blowing too hard) to generate power. The more wind-dependant renewable capacity you build, the more backup capacity you need in order to stop the lights going out. To make their case, I was presented with a copy of Dr John Etherington's recent book , "The Wind Farm Scam". Its heavy going and packed with a lot of power engineering science (I knew my physics degree was going to come in handy one day). If the arguments in the book are right, then we need to think very carefully about what we are doing with wind farms.

But are they? And even if they are, what are the alternatives?

This is a complex issue with no easy answers. I'd be very interested to hear views on the subject.