Renewable price cushion? (A C Wiseman)
As you no doubt will have seen on the news, the price of electricity is to go up again. Why does the council not make use of all this wind power we hear about all the time and put up a few Burradale-sized windmills and clip it into the local grid and help to cushion the price hikes for island people before that capacity is lost to the money makers?
Why is the energy minister (interview, 17th October) saying, at the site of pylon renewal down in the centre of Scotland, that they are to be bigger with more carrying capacity for all this renewable energy from the north of Scotland and the Northern Isles. Does he know something we don’t?
A C Wiseman
Gulberwick.
douglas young
Totally agree, a few token windfarms paid for by the SIC would benefit the general population. It is possible that the VE project is already dead in the water as turbines rely on neodymium in their magnets, and China, holding 95% of world reserves, is planning a ban on world-wide exports. If any was available on the world market, the price would be prohibitive.
The mining of these rare earth metals used in green wind energy causes more pollution in Mongolia than any nuclear plant in Europe. Incidentally, similar metals are used in the unrecyclable
low energy bulbs.
John Tulloch
As I’ve been known to mention fuel poverty from time to time it’s only fair to point out that, according to a short item on Professor Roger Pielke Jr.’s blog, the UK government has found a solution – change the definition so that the number of “fuel poor” shrinks!
http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.com/2011/10/uk-fuel-poverty-solved.html
Since Alasdair Carmichael holds an important ministerial position I expect he’ll know all about this and will likely be pleased to explain the benefits of the change for those of us unable to comprehend the subtleties of government thinking?
paul barlow
It very simple why they can’t. Without the interconnector they won’t be allowed to connect to the grid. Would it not be better to invest in some fuel storage tanks and import some fuel. this would insure that the money spent on fuel would benifit the community and not help fund an Irish company.