IGNORANCE is not always bliss

Vian Roberts, Saundersfoot, (Western Telegraph, September 4) certainly fits the stereotype of those who lack the experience and knowledge leave them vulnerable and prey to unscrupulous people and misleading propaganda.

To be sure, it is total ‘poppycock’ to claim intermittent wind power does not cause grid security problems – and you do not need to be an expert power engineer to perceive unpredictable wind will cause problems with the grid – you just need some basic common sense!

It is also very naive to believe the claim that the recent outage had nothing to do with wind generation when it clearly was part of the problem - as more conventional power stations close down only to be replaced by wind and solar generation, then the power cuts will happen much more often.

Vian Roberts is correct in saying there are many power engineers more knowledgeable and better qualified than myself – and those I have spoken with all agree that large scale wind generation in the UK is bordering on madness – which begs the question of how many ‘real life’ power engineers has Vian actually spoken to?

No doubt Vian Roberts would defend the term ‘wind turbine’ for a wind driven generator, when in fact it is not an engineering turbine - the term is simply a marketing ploy (propaganda) by the wind industry.

A trip to the nearest power station to see an actual turbine would be very educational and enlightening – having the opportunity also to speak to the engineers about wind generation.

Vian Roberts take on bird slaughter is also bizarre when implying it is OK for thousands of birds (don’t forget the bats which are a protected species) to be killed by wind generator blades, because millions are killed by cars - two wrongs do not make a right.

Has Vian Roberts considered how car bird slaughter statistics are derived – I have accidentally killed birds during many years of driving, but I did not report or register these unfortunate accidents to any authority – so how do they collate the bird figures quoted?

All the figures surely have to be extrapolated and bird slaughter by wind generator blades is more easily identifiable and accurate by the carcases found at the base of wind generators – see savetheeaglesinternational.org – which claims wind farms are actually slaughtering millions of birds and bats annually.

Finally, Vian Roberts unkind words regarding the courageous and well-intentioned David Bellamy OBE, are totally misplaced as my book covers such issues as weather and climate change, a brief history of the electricity industry etc – as mentioned earlier you do not need to be a power expert to appreciate the madness of large-scale wind generation in the UK - as such, the derogatory remarks say more about Vian Roberts than David Bellamy OBE.

DAVE HASKELL,

Brithdir