Teen beauty spot drinkers are ramblers, not rebels
- Dave Burrows
Letter: At least windfarms will produce jobs
Saturday 22nd October 2011, 11:44AM BST.
Letter: RE: Wind turbines. Too many people appear to be obsessed with the pros and cons regarding their efficiency etc and most, but not all of them, have overlooked the one overriding factor which goes above all other considerations, that is their benefit to the economy in terms of employment and income.
These are two of the three factors which determine what will and will not be done. The third factor is the educational benefits.
All aspects of their location, design, sourcing of materials, procurement of these materials, manufacture of components, partial assembly, transportation to site assembly on site, commissioning and maintenance all employ a large number of people and, in turn, generate a large income for the economy.
I do not expect all or any fossil/nuclear fuelled power stations to be switched off. We are still going to need the conventional power stations, no question about that.
According to my encyclopedia, to produce an output equal to a 1.2GW nuclear power station, a wind farm would cover 150 square. miles. A lot of land.
I will let you decide if there are any benefits on the education factor.
The turbines may not produce much – if at times any – electricity but they do certainly produce large amounts of money and jobs.
P A Harman
Newport
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Yeah, they do… in Sweden and Germany…
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But the overriding factor for wind farms is not to employ people or create an income for the economy but to produce electricity. Wind farms do not decrease employment levels and do not generate a large income for the economy, they act as a drag on the economy.
Perhaps if they were self-sustaining the writer might have a point but they are not, they require a large input of public money to build and large subsidies for the electricity they produce to make them attractive to investors, hence these jobs and this income are not new jobs and not new income they are transferred from other parts of the economy.
Wind farm subsides and green taxes are creating increased prices, many will be forced into fuel poverty and will not then spend on other things. Companies will either go out of business or relocate to other parts of the world and many people will loose their jobs and thus be forced to reduce their expenditure, it could therefore be argued that wind farms create a loss to the economy and a loss of jobs.
George Osborne is already thinking about giving tax breaks to large companies to offset these increased power costs, that might save a few jobs, if he introduces these tax breaks and if he is successful in preventing companies from relocating, but we will have to pay higher taxes to compensate and we will get no help in meeting our fuel bills.
If we want to create jobs and inject money into the economy we would be better advised to invest in something that was economically sound in its own right and did not need massive public subsidies and a fully functioning back up system in order to make it profitable for the owners, did not mean ever higher power prices and increased taxation, don’t you think ?
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