SIR – Felicity Norman’s letter on October 22 (Our governments are using excuses) may seem impressive politics but it is scientific nonsense.

Wind farms are not the answer to green energy.

They are at best some 25 per cent efficient and, because they produce no electricity when the wind drops, they must be backed up by equal capacity in the form of new conventional power stations, which could be generating all the power in the first place.

Attempts in Germany and Denmark to phase wind energy into the grid have let to major technical problems resulting in reduced investment in their wind farm programmes. So the sceptical European governments are right.

Pie-in-the-sky green policies emanating from the EU have already led to enormous increases in all our utility bills to pay for handouts to greedy wind turbine manufacturers whose installations will be ineffectual in preventing power outages during the next few years.

PROFESSOR DEREK SMITH,

UKIP energy and environment spokesman, Malvern.