Too much hot air over wind power

BRIAN BRITTON (Letters, September 18) reminds us once again that “Ireland is one of the countries with the greatest potential to develop offshore wind electricity-generating capacity”.

Very soon, we should get tired of hearing it. The reality of wind power, which Mr Britton does not allude to at all, is that it can only ever provide a small part of Irish energy needs.

When will the champions of wind energy acknowledge that the intermittence of wind makes it unmanageable in large quantities?

Mr Britton says that Ireland “ranks way behind other EU member states at present in capitalising on this valuable resource”.

Well, that is a good thing. France, in particular, gets no part of its electricity supply from wind, and for good reason. The reason is not that France lacks wind energy potential, but that wind is both impractical and uneconomic in competition with nuclear power.

Unfortunately, so much nonsense has been said and written about the fantastic potential of wind power that most Irish people have been misled into thinking it can produce all of our electricity. It cannot, but this wind power myth has been a central plank in the demonising of nuclear power.

After all, why have nuclear when we have abundant wind power? The answer is that there is no such thing as abundant wind power; there will only ever be too much, or too little.

The truth about wind power is now you see it, now you don’t.

Your editorial conclusion (September 10) that the choice is “nuclear or candles” may yet prove to be optimistic. It is already too late to build a nuclear power station in time for the coming energy crisis, and we will have to have candles before we have nuclear.

John Stafford

136 Dargle Wood

Knocklyon

Dublin 16