Poor returns

Those who defend the expansion of wind farms, (“SNP’s wind farm policy out of control”, 12 April), rely too often on the supposed superior benefits of the numbers employed in the sector and the amount invested in the economy.

Figures last year suggested that for every job associated with onshore wind farms in Scotland, the cost in subsidies is £154,000. Rather than be diverted by the supposed benefits of job creation in the wind industry, we should consider how the money might have been spent more productively and efficiently elsewhere. Our energy bills would be lower and goods and services would be cheaper if we were not taking all this money out of the economy in order to subsidise an inefficient industry.

Gordon Brown perfected the use of the term “investment” for the process of spending public money. Defenders of wind portray the squandering of public money on creating costly jobs and inefficient energy production in similar fashion. Investment should be expected to produce beneficial returns. 

Cllr Cameron Rose

City Chambers
Edinburgh