TRUTH ABOUT WIND Studies by the Royal Academy of Engineering, Britain's major professional body for Engineers, have shown that wind power cannot replace conventional energy sources: Wind is intermittent: wind farms only generate electricity 30% of the time. Back-up conventional power stations are needed; but they cannot be switched off and quickly started up when the wind drops. Even if Scotland is blanketed with wind turbines shore to shore, they will not produce enough to close a single conventional power station. As wind is unpredictable, back-up generators are necessary, i.e. gas, coal or nuclear. They are less efficient when operating in “spinning reserve” mode. Unpredictable wind electricity imposes extra demand fluctuations on power stations, decreases base load, and thus actually raises emissions because the mix of power plant must change to provide more spinning reserve.