NEWS FROM SPAIN

Our nasty nimbies claim to be 'Pro-Renewables'. Oh yeah? Actually, they're advised to make that claim by Country Guardian, a shady anti-wind group with links to the nuclear lobby.

But so 'Pro-Renewables' are they, they even have to tell lies about renewables in other people's countries. We saw recently how their claims that Denmark and Germany had given up on wind power simply fail the acid test of truthfulness - both countries are increasing their installed wind capacity, and you can hardly achieve that by putting a stop to windfarm developments.

Typical, though, that a mindless movement in the UK is prepared to rubbish the sterling efforts of other countries, just so that they can damage the national interest of their own country!

So what about Spain? In 2010, renewables supplied an amazing 35% of Spain's electricity - 16% from wind power alone (that's twice as much as dirty old coal managed to generate, and on very windy days, Spanish wind power provided over half of the electricity consumed!)

As a result of their fantastic strides forward, coal-fired power dropped by 34% and gas-fired power by 17% last year (22 gas projects were cancelled). That's excellent news for the environment and common sense - CO2 emissions from Spain's power system fell by 20% last year alone.

And what of that cretinous nimby claim that renewables (and wind) are expensive? Well, in 2009, Spain's renewables industry managed to reduce the overall costs of power generation by 4,830 million euros! Renewables contributed 8,525 millions euros to Spain's GDP and accounted for 3,042 million euros in exports.

In 2010, France became a net importer of electricity from Spain. See, nuclear power fails. Repeatedly. So the renewable nations are now supplying the nuclear nations. Take that, you nuke-friendly nimby nutters!!!

There is a tradition in Spain that, on January 6, children receive gifts from the three wise men. The most feared gift has always been coal - a sign that the child had been naughty. But coal is on the way out in Spain. On that very day - 6 Jan - this year, renewables supplied three-quarters of Spain's electricity needs. Coal accounted for just 4%.

So when one of our nimby jerks complains that ScottishPower Renewables aren't really Scottish - they're Spanish-owned - we can point out that, hey, so what? Spain's already miles ahead of us. If we had any sense, we'd be rushing to copy Spain's example.

Rather than making up stupid stories about windfarms to frighten the children and prop up the nuclear lobby.