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Western Mail

Written by Dr JOHN ETHERINGTON
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
SIR – BBC News has reported that Lord Elis-Thomas, who opened the new nuclear waste storage facility at Trawsfynydd last week, expressed support for replacing the aging Wylfa nuclear power station on Anglesey. Dafydd Elis Thomas was president of Plaid Cymru during the late ’80s, but his statement is in direct contradiction to Plaid’s stance in the 2005 general election manifesto which said it “does not support new nuclear power stations”. The party has also expressed strong support for the planning advice document (TAN 8) proposing large numbers of wind turbines in Wales. If a new Wylfa nuclear power station is built, as is now almost certain, it will probably be of 1600 MW and will operate as a base-load station yielding some 13 terawatt hours per year (TWh/y) with full power predictably available and next to no carbon emission. Compare this with WAG’s original projection of 7 TWh/y from renewables by 2020, mostly from wind. This of course will not be constantly available and requires backup thermal capacity reducing its efficacy in saving fossil fuel carbon emission. If just 5 TWh/y is from wind at 30% load factor, this would need an installed capacity of about 2000 MW, This equates to 1,000 giant 2.0 MW turbines, many miles of transmission line and paradoxically the need for perhaps 1500 MW to 1700 MW-worth of backup power station capacity, continuously available and using fuel.

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