Dawn Ritch, Contributor
THE GOVERNMENT is making a big song and dance out of creating a wind farm in Manchester called Wigton. The US$26 million facility will only add 20.7 megawatts to the national grid, bringing capacity to 800 megawatts.
This is not an awful lot of bang for the buck. But half the Cabinet, including the Most Honourable himself, were at the opening. They, as 'individuals' and collectively, were making a great hullabaloo out of increasing our electricity supply by a mere 2.5 per cent. No doubt it will be noted in their record of performance to Jamaica, that finding themselves full of wind, they contrived to sell it.
Touted as completely renewable energy, wind farms require 'back up' power sources for days when the wind does not blow. If things go according to rule in Jamaica, therefore, Wigton will become a burden to the national grid, and the increasingly beleaguered Jamaican taxpayer. Even if money were no object, a wind farm is not worth the trouble.
NOT MUCH USE
In a recent BBC documentary on wind farms, the United Kingdom Government's chief scientific adviser said that they'd never be of much use, as Germany was discovering to its great cost and disappointment. This is where windfarm technology is most established. In effect, he said that they were extravagantly expensive, and not worth the effort because they could only contribute a tiny fraction of supply to the national grid.
The Sunday Times of July 25, 2004 reports that "Sir Ian Fells, professor of energy conservation at Newcastle University and one of the world's leading renewable energy experts said that for wind power to contribute just 5 per cent of Britain's electricity supply would 'take a Herculean effort and a lot of subsidy'." This means extra payments from customers for something not worth the effort in the first place. In a recent editorial, this newspaper said it would like to see windfarms right across the island. Be careful what you wish for.
These things apart from being useless, are a blot on the landscape. Worse than any cell tower which is bad enough. They are huge white contraptions, like a swarm of white flies in grass. Except that these are gigantic, and don't go away even with pesticide. They just stand there useless.
"Professor David Bellamy, the naturalist, is campaigning against wind farms, warning of plans that will make the British coastline ugly and impossible for birdlife," The Sunday Times report said. These are after all, giant wind turbines. And if they're worried about their birdlife and coastline in Britain, then Jamaica ought to be appalled by the risk presented, not only to the environment, but our all-important tourism industry.
TOURIST ATTRACTIONS
I have not so far come across any wind farms becoming tourist attractions. Nobody seems to want to take a second look at them. Growing multitudes would rather not see them at all. As a consequence there is a growing anti-wind power lobby.
"Mr. Martin Holgate, an expert in renewable energy who once supported wind farms, believes they are not worth the cost and the environmental impact: they require large areas to produce small amounts of energy," said The Sunday Times. Jamaica is not an island with a great deal of area. On the windfarm issue, I bet we'll run out of money long before we run out of land.
Here in Jamaica, we have reason to be technophobes, even though we're not. I heard the story recently of a big Jamaican company that has got rid of its senior project managers. They were downsizing and getting rid of their overheads, with the result that their junior project managers now report to the computer. The company is closing down its workshops, and everything is going to be outsourced so that more money can be saved. This has all the wives and widows associated with the venture in a tizzy. Because the Young Turks who are now in charge of the company think it all makes complete sense.
Let me just say that the day the personal computer went on the market I stopped writing on a typewriter and went back to a fountain pen. I'm a complete computer illiterate, and hope to remain one.
I had no intention of spending the rest of my life looking at a TV screen, hooked up to the U.S. Library of Congress. Not when I can have a book under a tree, or a newspaper if there's no breeze. Why would I want to lug a monitor or a laptop anywhere at all? Suppose it gets wet? I don't have a cell phone either. I can buy a cell phone call anywhere in Jamaica, simply by offering $100. Any urgent call is worth it. And I won't have to pull over on the side of the road, and wonder where I've lost my cell. The damn thing is like having a gun. Or a wallet full of money. These things ring everywhere. But if you want to jump up from your lunch to answer it be my guest. It's like having two children and a dog.
EVERYBODY'S FAVOURITE EXCUSE
I'd like to ask Go-Jamaica to do a poll on technology and would like readers to supply some of the questions. I can think of two "Do you have a cell phone?", "If so, do you clear your messages?" Ah yes, and they can throw away the answering machines as well, as far as I'm concerned. And keep all their call-waiting. All they're doing is depriving a good Jamaican woman of a job that can lead somewhere. And allowing the computer to emerge as everybody's favourite excuse for non-performance.
So unlike this newspaper, I'm firmly on the side of the anti-wind farm lobby worldwide. I believe that the only solution to electricity is to use less of it, and provide it efficiently. If Prime Minister P. J. Patterson wants another day out in the country, hopefully it will be to provide irrigation for the farmers of St. Elizabeth. I'd much rather have good Jamaican produce, than look at another useless and expensive technological experiment at taxpayers' expense.
