Water could be used to store wind energy

From: John Walker, Luddenden, Halifax.

FROM the proliferation of wind turbines on local farms, it would appear that Yorkshire farmers have accepted that they are financially beneficial. Farmers are not known for throwing money about!

Would it not be sensible to concentrate wind turbines on the bleaker parts of the moors? 
I suspect that 90 per cent of people only see these parts of the moors on sunny days and then only if they can be seen from the car window.

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Also, why not use the reservoirs in the valleys of Yorkshire to store energy? Use the wind-generated energy to pump water from the lower reservoirs to the higher and then release the water downstream via water turbine generators at times when it is needed.

Sounds crazy and inefficient? Ireland is considering this project – they do not need the energy themselves but will export it to the UK.

From: John White, Rossett Green Lane, Harrogate.

THE time is fast approaching when the planning committee of Harrogate Borough Council will reach a decision on an application submitted by Kelda Water Services to build a wind farm close to Penny Pot Lane. The location falls within the parliamentary constituency of Skipton and Ripon whose elected representative at Westminster is the Conservative MP Julian Smith.

He has offered his backing for opposing the location of the proposed wind farm but he never questioned the wisdom of having wind farms in the first place. His political positioning is in sharp contrast to the 101 Conservative MPs who wrote to the Prime Minister in January and said: “In these financially straightened times, we think that it is unwise to make consumers pay, through taxpayer subsidy, for inefficient and intermittent energy production that typifies onshore wind turbines.”

Mr Smith did not sign this letter. Why not?

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From: Coun Robert Barnard, Conservative member of Barnsley MBC representing Penistone East Ward, Town Hall, Church Street, Barnsley.

I SYMPATHISE with Mr Horrox (Yorkshire Post, October 2) about the impact of a proposed wind farm near Harrogate.

I have been opposing turbines for years both because they are inefficient and due to the impact on the lives of nearby residents. The effects are already well documented but many people choose to disregard inconvenient facts.

Several turbines in this area suffered a catastrophic failure in the storms last January and in one case sections of broken blade ended up embedded in a dry stone wall after being flung across a road.

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Low frequency or infra sound is perceived as vibration and people living near wind turbines report symptoms such as sleep deprivation and anxiety which are analogous to those ascribed to “Wind Turbine Syndrome”. Infra sound travels as a ground wave and carries much further than sound at audible frequencies. A study by the University of Paris recommends that turbines be situated at least five kilometres from homes.

Perhaps there is a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel as the feed-in tariff, the mechanism by which we all subsidise turbine operators through our electricity bills, has recently been cut by 10 per cent.

From: Dave Haskell, Newchapel Road, Boncath, Pembrokeshire.

IS your MP worthy of your vote? It is absolutely astonishing to realise wind farm operators were recently paid £34m to switch wind generators off during periods of high wind – what utter madness to pay out millions of pounds to wind farms for not producing any energy.

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I bet landowners add to 
their signatures “please 
excuse the shaky handwriting” when signing a contract. If 
 this access to easy money does not get them excited, I guess nothing will.

It truly begs the question of why MPs, of all parties, are not vociferously calling for the wind subsidy to be scrapped?

These honourable people 
are supposed to represent 
and protect our interests – 
guard us against unscrupulous scams – so ask yourself, what 
is your particular MP doing 
about this disgraceful affair, 
and is the MP in question worthy of your valued vote?

A lesson in the art of location

From: Rodney Atkinson, Meadowfield Road, Stocksfield, Northumberland.

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I DON’T believe that Ed Miliband’s comprehensive school in middle class North London was anything like the equivalent in Newcastle or Sheffield. Like Shirley Williams who sent her daughter to a comprehensive school in Holland Park or Tony Blair who sent his children to a high performing Catholic school these well located London “ordinary schools” have unique catchment areas, determined by those who can afford local house prices.

That is the privileged world 
that Labour created by abolishing the grammar school – elitism 
not by ability but by location. 
And socialist politicians knew then and know now where to locate to.

From: Kim Hunter, Frodingham Road, Scunthorpe.

ED Miliband gave a brilliant speech. But we must remember that politics is a funny old business. And if John Major can be Prime Minister, so can Mr Miliband.

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