It was interesting to read the letter from P Christian of Isle of Man Friends of the Earth that appeared in last week’s Manx Independent, regarding the proposed onshore wind farm at either Earystane or Druidale.

In that letter it was claimed that ‘onshore wind is the cheapest form of energy, which should be at the forefront of future publicity’.

It may indeed be cheaper to generate a unit of electricity from wind, compared to oil or gas.

But because wind power is weather-dependent, intermittent and variable, the electrical output of any wind farm on the Isle of Man will have to be balanced with that from other sources with different unit costs, such as the UK interconnector and any existing or new Isle of Man based generators in order to meet consumer demand on the island at any point in time.

This balancing process which blends electrical output from different sources makes it difficult to predict whether the proposed wind farm will have any impact at all on the actual price paid by the consumer for electricity.

So any statement that onshore wind provides the cheapest form of energy should be examined very carefully, especially if it is to be used in justification for the insertion of what is essentially an unsightly industrial installation with a very large footprint high on a prominent hillside set amongst truly magnificent countryside in the south of the island.

Dr Andrew Wilkins

Castletown

This letter was first published in the Manx Independent of August 3.

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