Dear Editor,
Congratulations to "Only Boys Aloud" on gaining an excellent third place in television's "Britain's Got Talent". I wish them all well in the future !! I see that the choir members come from as far afield as the Gwent Valleys and Carmarthenshire, Aberdare to Pontypridd.... in fact, mainly from all over the Valleys !! Well done boys !! You've done yourselves......the Valleys ....and all of Wales ....extremely proud !! Choir master Tim
Rhys-Evans deserves our grateful thanks. He is doing fantastic work for
Wales
and its cultural standing world-wide ! Let's hope
that "Only Boys Aloud " sell tens of thousands of records allied to Tim's
other excellent choirs, " Only Men Aloud " and "Only Kids Aloud".
However, one discordant note of caution ! The future , very unmusical, cacophony that will emanate from the massive Pen y Cymoedd wind farm , whose 475 ft wind turbines are proposed from Aberdare to Neath could affect choral rehearsals and recordings
thumping noises at times !! As will Glyncorrwg and Treherbert. The wind turbines in your photograph look like the tiny 150 ft high ones above Gilfach Goch. The 76 monsters of Pen y Cymoedd will all be treble the height , treble the width and treble the girth of those little machines, which are only as big as Nelson's Column. Each new TAN 8 wind turbine across the Valleys will only be 45 feet short of the height of Blackpool Tower, and easily visible from Exmoor !! If Pen y Cymoedd is allowed to go ahead , I'm afraid that the future dominant "sound of the Valleys" could unfortunately become "Only Turbines Aloud " !!
right across the Valleys. The famous Treorchy Male Voice Choir are in a
particularly vulnerable spot ....with gi gantic "thundering" monsters ,
almost as tall as
Blackpool Tower ,surrounding the village on three
sides. I'm afraid that Treorchy will almost vibrate with deep , incessant
Yours faithfully,
L J Jenkins,
Clyn-yr-ynys,
Gwbert,
Cardigan,
SA431PR
Dear Editor
Mindless
The proponents of wind technology claim that one of the attributes of wind farms in the UK is the saving in atmospheric emissions. This is utter nonsense, and leaving aside that the UK contributes only about 2% of global emissions, the trite claim is easily rubbished by the indisputable fact that wind farms need 90% backup by fossil-fuelled power stations. To put things into further perspective, and adding further salt to the wound, all of the blades of the current largest onshore wind farm in Wales, namely, Cefn Croes, have had their blades replaced at least once - Cefn Croes wind farm is situated in Mid-Wales, was constructed in 2003 and comprises over 30 wind generators - thus apart from the cost of replacing these components, this maintenance requirement necessitated transportation from Eastern Europe, which begs the question of how much exhaust gas and particulates were emitted to the atmosphere in transporting these new blades? Now I doubt very much that the Welsh Government have quantified not only the emissions, but also the initial capital and on-going costs for Cefn Croes, or indeed, for any other wind farm in Wales when attempting to justify the case for ineffective, unreliable, countryside destroying, health threatening, landowner and foreign country profiteering costly wind generation?
Unbelievably the latest mindless development (to be the largest onshore wind farm in Wales and England) is the go-ahead for the £365m Pen y Cymoedd development between Neath & Aberdare in South Wales. The Swedish based Vattenfall say the 76 wind generators, each 145m tall, will have an installed capacity of 299MW, enough to power 206,000 homes – indeed, the UK Energy Minister claims it would generate vasts amount of home-grown electricity! Well, what a load of old rubbish, and you have to wonder what planet the Energy Minister is living on with his nonsensical claim – in simple terms, when the wind doesn’t blow, not one watt of power will be forthcoming...but not only that, Wales already generates more power than it needs and exports to England – when it comes to Westminster and the Welsh Assembly you truly have to wonder - is anybody listening out there?
Dave Haskell
Golygfa Frenni Fawr
Newchapel Road
Boncath
Pembs
SA37 0JL
Tel: 01239 841635
Everybody,
I wonder if the Swedish state would have been interested without the ROCs?
Vattenfall Group’s parent company, Vattenfall AB, is a Swedish public limited liability company with registered office in Stockholm.
- Net sales: SEK 181.0 billion = £16.4 billion
- Operating profit: SEK 23.2 billion = £2.1 billion
- Underlying operating profit: SEK 30.8 billion £2.8 billion
- Electricity generation: 166.7 TWh
- External sales of electricity: 209.4[1] TWh
- Total number of employees, as of 31 December: 34,685
The vision of the company is to “create a strong and diversified European energy portfolio with sustainable and increased profits, significant growth options and will be among the leaders in developing environmentally sustainable energy production.” Furthermore, Vattenfall says that the “UK is a market for future growth and we have strong ambitions for both offshore and onshore wind power.” Bet it is with £38.69 for each MW squeezed out of these 76 mega turbines. The current First Minister of Wales will be happy since Vattenfall has promised the Wales economy a boost with DECC approval.
Oili
