So Much Wind

Given the current policies of the Scottish government, wind turbines are a hot topic. They are springing up all around the countryside and creating great controversy at a local and national level. This book is firmly anti-, and marshals the arguments and evidence in an unashamedly didactic fashion. The main arguments against wind energy are that generation is intermittent, that backup systems are required, that landscapes are despoiled (potentially affecting tourism), that subsidies transfer money from the poor to rich landowners, that there are under-reported effects on health and birds and that it is too expensive, especially offshore. This raises the question of the mix of energy required to meet increasing demand, and the author is not unsympathetic to nuclear energy, although he arguably underestimates the costs. New technologies involving fracking are very much in the news, but their environmental impact has yet to be fully assessed. There is also new technology associated with thorium and the possibility of developing a hydrogen economy as part of a third Industrial Revolution involving a smart grid of decentralised suppliers, including renewables; also much more emphasis on conservation. He is certainly right in claiming that the target of 100% electricity from renewables in Scotland by 2020 is neither economically viable nor environmentally sustainable. We need what some people call a grown-up debate about the future of energy supply and also serious examination of developments in the so-called free energy field - see the Thrive film for examples.