Are offshore wind
farms the solution to our energy crisis? On Thursday at 9 on Radio 4 I
visit one to investigate. We certainly had our own little crisis; the
sea was choppy; the boat heaved and pitched, and my poor producer was
horribly seasick.
Is there an
energy crisis? Yes; it looms. Thirty years ago we had an oil crisis,
but luckily discovered North Sea gas, which has fuelled our cookers
and our power stations ever since. But North Sea gas is running out;
we no longer burn much dirty coal, and nuclear fission is right out of
fashion. So our capacity for producing our own power is going down,
while the demand for power is rising, for DVD players, washing
machines, and air conditioning.
Harnessing wind
power is familiar technology; the first recorded use of a windmill was
by a Persian millwright in AD 644, and we have used the wind ever
since. Wind farms have several positive features. There is no fuel;
the energy really is free, and if well designed and built they should
need little maintenance - although the capital cost of building them
is horrendous.
From a distance
those white towers and whirling blades look majestic. Some people say
they ruin the landscape, but out at sea there is no landscape, and I
for one do not feel they ruin the seascape. Residents complain of the
noise, but out at sea there are no residents. Bird lovers claim the
blades kill hundreds of birds, but the evidence is dubious, and I
reckon birds will learn to avoid them.
The British
coastline is the windiest in Europe. Realistically we could supply up
to 25 per cent of our energy from off-shore wind farms, but - and it
is a big but - the wind does not blow all the time. Suppose there is
flat calm for a couple of weeks. Do we all have to turn off our
tellies and microwaves? Do we phone an emergency help line and ask
people to mine some coal and fire up one of the old power stations?
The real answer
to the energy crisis is nuclear fusion - no ugly uranium, no polluting
plutonium; just clean hydrogen and helium. But sadly the crisis is
further ahead than the next election, and so the government is content
to bury its head in the sand and blow the trumpet for offshore wind.
