Letter: Beware spin from wind power lobby

In response to the report issued on the effectiveness of onshore wind generation (7 April), Scottish Renewables announced that it has "no confidence in these unofficial figures" and yet the report itself makes it quite clear that "the data used originates from the National Grid" and is "accessible to, and verifiable by, anyone with an internet connection".

Perhaps Scottish Renewables does not have an internet connection. Or perhaps it did not come across the statistics reported last week from the Renewable Energy Foundation and indeed the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which gives credence to the report's claims.

Scottish Renewables does not stop there; it claims that "companies like these do not invest in technologies that don't work".

The point is that they most certainly do, if the subsidies creating their profits are sufficiently large.

Scottish Renewables attempts to justify the industry's output by pointing out that "no form of electricity works at 100 per cent capacity 100 per cent of the time". But how many, like onshore wind, work at less than 10 per cent capacity for 33 per cent of the time?

No wonder the members of Scottish Renewables need such large subsidies and no doubt would have us ignore the fact that "energy conservation measures are approximately three times as effective as spending public money on any kind of generation" (John Muir Trust).

A little appreciated point in favour of spending on conservation measures is that they tend to give employment to small local firms rather than give profit to big business.

John Milne

Ardgowan Drive

Uddingston, South Lanarkshire

I am surprised that you choose not to give adequate cover to the damning report from the John Muir Trust, which showed that the UK's heavily subsidised wind farms were working at just 21 per cent of maximum capacity in 2010 and 24 per cent between November 2008 and December 2010.

The wind industry and their mouthpieces chant the mantra that "wind turbines will generate on average 30 per cent of their rated capacity over a year".

What is even worse is the developers quote 30 per cent when applying for planning permission. This is fraud. The Scotsman compounds the felony by allowing Jenny Hogan of Scottish Renewables to spout her propaganda (Platform, 7 April). Scottish Renewables is the mouthpiece for the developers who pay the generous salaries of Ms Hogan and others. I am disappointed The Scotsman allows/asks Scottish Renewables, WWF, Friends of the Earth and other pro-wind voices to comment on various issues but denies these facilities to the numerous and growing anti-renewable voices.

Clark Cross

Springfield Road

Linlithgow

Jenny Hogan of Scottish Renewables writes about "myths" on wind farms.

She does not mention the fact that on the coldest days of winter, when the sky is clear and the wind still, wind farms produce no energy at all, just when it is most needed.

RD Cramond

Oswald Road

Edinburgh