Alistair Ramsay’s thoughtful commentary on the plan for giant wind turbines somewhere in the Manx Uplands in the Examiner on August 8 has rightly invited us to consider the effect of onshore wind energy on our biosphere landscape.

The other factor which is seemingly being ignored by our government is the huge financial cost of getting our green energy this way – a cost which based on previous very large capital projects initiated by our government can only increase if this plan proceeds.

Of course, whilst the island (and indeed the UK) should be seeking to transition to green energy and it is right that we set an example, neither of our efforts will have any meaningful effect on global warming.

This will inevitably cost all of us a lot of money in increased taxation and/or energy pricing which must of course be spread over a very considerable number of years along with the not inconsiderable cost of other green initiatives.

We therefore need to proceed very cautiously rather than be slaves to aspirational political timescales which are no more than ‘virtue signalling’.

A debate on the realistic pace of change has recently begun in the UK and will surely follow here.

In respect of this particular proposal, no less than an independently- led public inquiry would be essential before any more public money is spent on it.

Such an inquiry would need to consider more affordable and less environmentally damaging alternatives, the most obvious of which would be to lay an undersea cable to take part of the electricity which will be produced offshore quite close to the island at less than half the cost currently being quoted for onshore wind.

This option would also deliver electricity directly to the location on the island where around half our electricity consumption occurs.

And in any case, offshore wind electricity generation efficiency per turbine is far greater than onshore due to both higher wind speeds and less terrain-induced atmospheric turbulence.

Name and address supplied

This letter was first published in the Isle of Man Examiner of August 15.

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