Trust exposes truth on wind farms

Wednesday, 6th April 2011

An in-depth report into Britain's wind farms by the John Muir Trust has made it clear that they are not what they are cracked up to be.

Christopher Monckton, the UKIP spokesman on Energy, said of the report: "The Trust points out that wind farms – which only UKIP opposes –generate just a quarter of their rated, and oft-boasted capacity.

"These useless monstrosities generate less than a tenth of their capacity at least once a week. The report must be the beginning of the end for these ugly, bird-slicing, bat-killing leviathans.

"Their sinister march across our land is destroying the remote and beautiful landscapes and the wild creatures of the UK.

"It is pretended by the wind farm industry and Government agencies that wind farms could in theory generate a tenth of the UK’s average electricity demand. In practice, they generate less than a 40th of it."

The key findings of the report are:


1 Average output from wind was 27.18% of metered capacity in 2009, 21.14% in 2010, and 24.08% between November 2008 and December 2010 inclusive.

2 There were 124 separate occasions from November 2008 till December 2010 when total generation from the windfarms metered by National Grid was less than 20MW. (Average capacity over the period was in excess of 1600MW).

3 The average frequency and duration of a low wind event of 20MW or less between November 2008 and December 2010 was once every 6.38 days for a period of 4.93 hours.

4 At each of the four highest peak demands of 2010 wind output was low being respectively 4.72%, 5.51%, 2.59% and 2.51% of capacity at peak demand.

5 The entire pumped storage hydro capacity in the UK can provide up to 2788MW for only 5 hours then it drops to 1060MW, and finally runs out of water after 22 hours.

Lord Monckton went on: "All of wind farms, combined, will forestall less than 0.003 Celsius of 'global warming' over the whole of the next decade. That is little more than 1/350th of a degree, at a cost to taxpayers of billions in higher taxes and electricity prices.

"UKIP alone pledges to ban all public money being spent on new wind farms and to end subsidies to all existing wind farms. UKIP alone pledges that it will end the taxes and charges which our political class now inflicts on the very air we breathe."

"The John Muir Trust should join UKIP, the only true environmentalists in Britain today."