Wind still wins

J Mark Gibson (Letters, 9 January) baldly states: "When we most need energy, the wind farms do nothing."

Yes, wind turbine blades will remain stationary during periods of high atmospheric pressure and, yes, almost any part of the country is liable to get high pressure on a fairly random basis at any time of the year. But Scotland is rarely in the grip of high-pressure systems for prolonged periods.

I would direct Mr Gibson to the map entitled Wind Energy Resources Over Europe (Troen and Petersen, 1989) which divides the land mass of Europe into five "grades" of wind energy achievable on an average annual basis. The highest-scoring areas are the North-west of Denmark, the north and west coasts of Ireland, the estuaries of the Rhne/Sane and Canal du Midi flowing into the Gulf of Lion, an area in Spain near to the French border, the North-east of England, and all of Scotland.

It doesn't matter that the turbines don't happen to be blow- ing occasionally. It can be proven that they will for the majority of the time and the most pressing thing now is to work on a way of storing the energy when the wind is blowing.

As the comedian Frankie Boyle said: "If only we could harness the power of Scottish moaning."

BARRY LEES

Denholm Street

Greenock, Renfrewshire