We already have too many
wind turbines in Scotland

Letter - Northern Times

Sir

Having read the recent reports that constraint payments paid to wind operators have nearly doubled in 2020 to £274,161,002 from 2019 you have to wonder what is driving Nicola Sturgeon to allow thousands more turbines into the planning process, especially as all the thousands of operational ones are, as I write, providing just 3% of our needs.

It is bitterly cold, demand is high and the wind has, as it often does in the winter, gone AWOL.

Surely she can see the destruction done by industrial wind development for this unpredictable energy. She can't be proud of the fact that the two Scottish grid operators are both beneficiaries of many millions to not generate as the companies propose yet more turbines onto a grid that they know can't cope. Is she pleased with herself that all those promised 'green' jobs for Scots just disappear to far away countries? How about her personal refusal to give communities the veto like English counterparts have – is she comfortable treating rural folk like second class citizens? She can't possibly think that only Scottish raptors and bats are managing to dodge the blades as they rotate at 180+mph.

This is not about saving the planet as it has never been proven wind turbines will make any difference to what the climate does or doesn't do.

It certainly can't be for energy security.

It can't be because she actually likes to see iconic land and seascapes trashed by turbines and all the miles of pylons and infrastructure that goes with them.

It is, as it is always is with the SNP, about independence and their bizarre desperation to re-join the EU and ditch their closest union. Do they think wind energy will make them more appealing as a partner?

EU countries are struggling right now as their turbines stand idle in this winter high-pressure system and more and more people are realising that putting all your eggs into one windy basket is not a good idea. With a commitment to pay billions in subsidies and the doubling of constraints year on year Ms Sturgeon should tell us how all this will be paid for in an independent Scotland.

With only 8% of UK electricity bill payers living in Scotland is she really going to squeeze us when the other 92% in the UK will no longer fund her reckless over-deployment of turbines?

She really needs to explain where this money will come from and why she thinks industrial wind is worth the environmental cost - because our mountains and glens are not renewable.

Lyndsey Ward

Beauly

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