Some Questions for Contact

Contact Energy claims only 218 wind turbines will provide 650MW of electricity for 250,000 homes — more than half a million people — for $2 billion.

Near Palm Springs, noisy and ugly 4000 wind turbines also supply electricity to 500,000 people. The hotter the summer, the greater the wind speed and electricity generated.

How can Contact’s 281 turbines produce the same energy as 4000 in California under ideal conditions? Is New Zealand not more like Hawaii, which must provide alternative generation for peak demands when the wind slows?

Wind-powered Holland and Denmark, ironically, have to buy peak power from Sweden, which, along with France, decided on nuclear generation years ago.

Rational decisions should be based upon evidence, not ideology.

What about tidal power? A Harvard professor has shown Auckland could be powered by undersea turbines at the entrances to the Manukau, Kaipara and Hokianga harbours, connected by an undersea cable.

We are lucky. New Zealand can probably manage, for now, on a mix of hydro, geothermal, wind and maybe, tidal generation. But we will still need peak-demand backup.

One day, like it or not, we will have to go nuclear.

Dr PETER FOREMAN

Taupo (Abridged)

(c) 2007 Dominion Post. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.