Madam, - John Gibbons (Opinion, July 17th) states that "By 2020, one third of all ESB production will be from renewables, mostly wind power". His view that this will help reduce electricity prices and harmful emissions is pure fantasy.
Wind turbines, on average, only produce about 30 per cent of their rated capacity and most of this is totally wasted because it is generated at times of low demand.
Frustratingly, wind power is missing when you need it most, such as winter periods of high pressure with coldest temperatures, peak electricity demand, but no wind.
Worse still, because of its unreliability, wind power must always be fully backed up by conventional power plants all fired up and belching out CO2. Consequently, there is no saving on emissions and the combined carbon footprint is actually much worse than before.
On price, the ESB's study, "Impact of Wind Power Generation in Ireland", states that achieving "electricity production from renewables of 22 per cent. . . would increase generation costs over the no wind case by 24 per cent" (www.eirgrid.com/publications - page 31).
Ireland's electricity prices are already 20 per cent above the European average, so this wind farm madness will help put our competitiveness into a real tailspin. - Yours, etc,
DICK KEANE,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.