Environment and Sustainability Committee
Inquiry into Energy Policy and Planning in Wales

EPP  153 – Dr James DC Martin

To whom it may concern.
  Petitions and recent public meetings have shown enormous antagonism to the development of the Welsh landscape as home to thousands of wind turbines together with the supporting network of power lines.
   There has been very little made by those in power as to the desecration of life style, both in the value of properties - life savings - and health of those who live within quite a long distance of turbines. There are many reports from a lot of countries about these two matters.
   Recently pictures of discarded wind turbines left in situ have been published and these are horrifying. The authorities have not laid down legislation for the removal of such scrap metal nor, and just as importantly, the removal of the vaste concrete foundations after the lifetime of turbines.
   It is beginning to be realised that unreliably intermittent energy is more than a hindrance than a blessing. The higher the percentage of uneven supply from windfarms the more backup from constantly spinning fossil fuelled power stations has to be provided. The aim to save on CO2 emissions is thus largely negated.
   The funding for wind is from users' elecricity bills. The more the unsuitability of wind generated electricity becomes known the more the population will be angry about the wasting of their money and for the many who will go into fuel poverty.
  People will vote for those who spend their money sensibly.
  The Welsh Assembly would be better advised to invest in tidal energy, such as the lagoons proposed -  reliable and predictable.
   We need new technologies for our energy. Nuclear must take a lion's share.
   The production of CO2 is not a great problem when one considers that during the Roman Warm Period and The Mediaeval Warm period both CO2 levels and Temperatures were considerably higher than they are today. And in those days humans were not producing CO2 as we do today. It was natural and not anthropogenic. So worrying about CO2 is really a red herring.   
   I hope the Assembly will take my views into consideration.

Yours faithfully, Dr James D.C. Martin