IT is disappointing that the prospective UKIP parliamentary candidate for Thirsk and Malton has launched his election campaign with comments about wind energy generation based on myth and prejudice rather than facts. The future of our country’s energy supply is of crucial importance and needs to be addressed in a factual and rational manner.

Different forms of renewable energy will be a necessity in order to meet our future energy needs. To suggest that abandoning wind generation will somehow solve our problems is naive and misleading.

In 2013, the National Grid submitted a report to the Scottish government that showed that from April 2011 to September 2012 wind generated power only required a backup of 0.1 per cent of its total output. A comparison of the yearly output of wind generation against demand also shows the peak winter output coincides with increased demand at that time.

Regarding the effect on birdlife the RSPB has studied the effects of wind farms and concluded that “the scale of bird strikes does not seem to be a serious concern”. They have objected to only six per cent of applications due to the proximity of bird migration routes, breeding or feeding grounds.

Wind farms occupy only a small fraction of any farmland they are built on leaving the rest of the land for agriculture. Once the generators are no longer needed the land can be restored unlike some other forms of energy generation that contaminate the land and require lengthy and expensive reclamation.

All forms of energy generation receive some type of subsidy whether directly in the form of the Renewables Obligation and the clean up costs of nuclear or indirectly in the form of tax breaks for the exploration and exploitation of fossil fuel reserves. The cost of the renewable subsidy added about one per cent to household bills in 2010 (the cost should diminish as renewable technology becomes more efficient). This cost on bills was far outstripped by the increase in world gas prices during this period.

The production of all forms of energy will create some unwanted side effects. But perhaps the visual effect of wind turbines is to be preferred to the hidden effects of toxic nuclear waste, the potential pollution of our water supplies by fracking, or the devastation caused by the extraction, transportation and burning of fossil fuels.

Glyn Wild, Swinton