NEWS RELEASE For Immediate Use 11 November 2009 MURDO SPEAKS IN SCOTTISH ENERGY SEMINAR The need for the SNP Government to think again on its anti-nuclear stance was raised at an energy seminar in the European Parliament in Brussels this week. The event, hosted by Scottish Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson, was attended by Deputy Leader of the Scottish Conservatives Murdo Fraser MSP, representatives of the European Commission, Mike Daniels and Helen McDade of the conservation charity the John Muir Trust and representatives of the nuclear industry. In the seminar, MSP Murdo Fraser outlined his concerns of the SNP Government’s current policies towards renewables: “Scotland is facing an energy gap as we have to reduce oil and gas consumption and renewables struggle to fill the space. The SNP Government's policy of not building new nuclear capacity leaves us in danger of having to import electricity for the first time in my lifetime. It is a grossly irresponsible stance which is costing jobs and driving away scientific expertise. “The SNP's alternative approach seems to be to blanket Scotland with wind turbines, damaging our natural landscape and putting our vital tourism at risk. This is actually holding back the development of marine technologies such as wave and tidal, where Scotland has the opportunity to be a world leader.” In the Seminar, Scottish Conservative Euro MP Struan Stevenson said: “The Luddite approach of the SNP government saying no to nuclear energy and throwing everything into a mad stampede for wind power, will threaten Scotland with blackouts in the future. The 'load factor' for wind turbines in Scotland is around 30%. That means that the giant turbines which bristle across our landscape actually produce energy at their maximum output for only around one third of their operating life. This in turn means that backup generating capacity has to be filled to fill the gap. In fact, because of the unpredictability of windpower, backup power stations have to be able to meet peak demand, with perhaps up to 20% extra as insurance. Because the SNP government has refused to entertain new nuclear plant, this backup generating capacity in Scotland will have to come from high CO2 emitting coal or gas-fired fossil fuel plants. “This knocks a hole in the entire philosophy behind the drive for on-shore wind, which is a vastly expensive, over-rated and inefficient technology which will cost Scotland's consumers dear and lead to inevitable energy blackouts. The fact that Scottish peatland and forestry is being destroyed to accommodate many of these wind farms, adds insult to injury. These are our natural carbon capture and storage ecosystems and we destroy them at our peril. Wrecking the planet to save the planet is just pure insanity.” Speaking on behalf of the John Muir Trust, Head of Policy, Helen McDade said: “We are very concerned that there is too much focus on renewable energy targets and that can mean each proposal's impact on our natural heritage is not fully assessed. There are major problems with depending too much on this one type of electricity generation - it is intermittent and still requires extra conventional back-up generation. Massive expansion of the electricity grid cannot be justified for such a source. The first choice for taxes or subsidies must be investment in energy conservation. It costs about one third as much to save one unit of energy as to generate one - whatever the type of generation.” Chief Scientific Officer at the John Muir Trust, Mike Daniels, added: “Industrial scale renewable developments on fragile and sensitive wild land is not only damaging to the 'natural capital' on which we all depend but is also counterproductive in climate change terms due to the release of carbon from peat soils.” ENDS   back to top of page