Age
25 February 2011 Page: 16
MICHAEL Madden (Letters, 24/2), Spain and Portugal have not lost 2½ jobs for every new job in renewable energy. This is a theoretical figure from a discredited study from a US right wing thinktank. The Spanish themselves said the study used incorrect data and egregiously flawed assumptions. Spain and Portugal are unable to import more than about 10% of their electricity, from French nuclear plants or otherwise, due to limited capacity on the Pyrenees interconnectors. They meet energy demand overwhelmingly from their own resources, increasingly from renewables.
Wind and solar provided 19% of all Spain's electricity needs in 2010, and on occasion supply nearly two thirds of the instantaneous demand. Yet Spain's electricity prices are consistently below the EU average. I visited Portugal and Spain last year and wasn't struck by "visual pollution": instead there is widespread acceptance of wind power, perhaps due to the absence of an anti renewables lobby suggesting to people they ought to fear wind turbines.
Tony Morton, Coburg
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