Europe and wind: at last, the consensus is cracking

Christopher Booker,Telegraph
" For years our politics has been frozen in a claustrophobic unanimity, whereby all parties agreed that we must not question our loyalty to the EU – or the need to “fight climate change” by suicidally distorting our energy policy in favour of those absurd windmills. But on each issue, those who spoke out last week were aware that their actions were viewed with sympathy even in the highest reaches of government. What “targets” was he referring to? He couldn’t possibly have meant the EU target which commits us to producing 32 per cent of our electricity from renewables within eight years. Technically, this is out of the question: it would require us to spend £100 billion on another 24,000 giant turbines, at a rate of nearly 10 a day, in addition to the 4,500 we’ve already got (which produce between them less electricity than the 2.2 megawatt gas-fired power station that opened in Wales in September, at only a fraction of the cost). We may, he implied, be unable to stop the 3,500 turbines already under construction or with planning permission, but as to what comes after that, we must have a serious national debate."