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'Renewable energy: vision or mirage?' - press coverage

Renewable Energy: Vision or Mirage? is available here

Renewable energy is unreliable, says report (The Times; 12.12.11)

Alex Salmond’s vision of a Scotland powered by wind, wave and tidal energy has suffered a major setback with the publication today of a highly critical report warning that the SNP’s plans for a renewables revolution will never work.

The report, compiled by the right-leaning think-tank the Adam Smith Institute, claimed that renewable energy was too unreliable ever to replace gas, coal and nuclear generation.

Researchers insisted that wind energy, on which the First Minister has placed considerable emphasis, would never be economically viable and it concluded that wind turbines were doing little to reduce carbon emissions and fossil fuel consumption.

One of the authors of the report, Martin Livermore, of the Scientific Alliance, said that Scotland was in danger of following the course taken by Denmark, which has to sell renewable-generated electricity when it has a surfeit and import electricity when the wind is not blowing.  more

 

Over-reliance on wind farms 'will lead to power cuts' (The Telegraph; 12.12.11)

A report by the Adam Smith Institute and the Scientific Alliance says that wind farms cannot meet the need for energy, leading to "a crisis by the middle of this decade".

It estimates that five turbines would have to be put up every day to generate the Government's targeted amount of electricity from wind, which is championed by Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary.
 
Martin Livermore, a director of the Scientific Alliance, said turbines cannot be built quickly enough to replace Britain's current coal and nuclear stations, which will mostly have closed by the end of the decade
"It's a real lack of energy security," he said. "The rather frightening comparison is with South Africa, where they didn't build nearly enough power stations and they've had rolling blackouts for a number of years.
 
"Clearly, if we made a real effort to encourage energy efficiency, the situation might not be too bad – it doesn't look too rosy at the moment."  more
 
 

Renewable energy 'mirage' could lead to a crisis (The Scotsman; 12.12.11)

MOVES to increase the use of renewable energy to generate electricity are “unrealistic” and will lead to an energy crisis by the middle of the decade, a report co-authored by a right wing think tank has claimed.

The report, Renewable Energy: Vision or Mirage, published by the Adam Smith Institute and Scientific Alliance, dismissed suggestions that renewable energy can meet the UK’s future energy needs.
 
It said solar and wind energy had “no prospect of becoming economically competitive” and renewables would be not be able to replace gas, coal and nuclear generation.  more

Current Issues

The Scientific Alliance and Adam Smith Institute jointly published an important new report on renewable energy on 12 December. more

 

What's New

Letter published in The Economist, 12 April 2013: A new climate?