SIR Walter Scott has been drawn into a fight to stop a wind farm being built at a Lothians beauty spot he admired as one of the most striking scenes he had ever seen.

Failure to build a controversial new power line could kill Scotland's renewable energy plans "stone dead", green businesses have warned.

THE UK took its fight for a liberal energy market to Europe yesterday as Malcolm Wicks, the Energy Minister, chided his European colleagues for allowing vested interests to keep markets closed.

GREEN lobby groups that oppose nuclear energy were accused of "fundamentalism" yesterday as the Government announced a review of whether to build a new generation of nuclear power stations.

The Prime Minister has called for a “mature debate” on energy policy. If the antics of two Greenpeace activists yesterday are any indication, he may struggle to achieve that. This is, as he admitted, a “difficult and challenging” matter. Yet it is precisely because it is difficult and will be challenged in emotive terms, that the question must not be avoided. The “review” of Britain’s energy requirements, which should be completed by the summer, is likely to recommend the development of a new generation of nuclear power stations. The Prime Minister needs to start preparing now for the discussion and the distortions that will surely follow.

Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday signalled a shift away from the Government's stance on wind power when he ordered a wide-ranging review of Britain's energy needs.

In a Question to the Environment Minister in the National Assembly, Elin Jones, Assembly Member for Ceredigion has challenged Carwyn Jones to give priority to the use of Forestry Commission land for windfarm developments.

A DRAMATIC stop has been put on an application to erect 10 of the largest wind turbines in Wales on a site near Pencader.

Our correspondent assesses the options available for those planning Britain’s future energy needs. Generating electricity from nuclear reactors is as effective at combating global warming as any known form of renewable energy and is likely to remain so indefinitely.

Sources at Country Guardian claim that they have stopped or postponed up to 89 per cent of planned wind farms in some years. Ingham has been credited with personally thwarting 80 per cent of applications. His group is currently trying to crush a plan by the Duke of Beaufort to site turbines on land he owns north of Swansea.

If the wind isn't blowing at peak times, the argument goes, then the wind turbines are not contributing to the power in the grid. However, if wind farms could store all the power they generate at off-peak times, during the night for example, and then control the way and time it is released, it would not only enhance the revenue streams they could receive, but also remove the intermittency claims. Now, a Canadian energy management firm claims to be able to do just that. EPOD International has secured two pilot projects with wind power developers in Canada and the US to test their proprietary energy storage system, the EMT.

Wind power supporters have received a boost from a study that shows Britain has the best wind in Europe because it blows all year round and peaks when there is greatest demand for electricity.

They introduced the world to "environmentally friendly" energy, but now some of Europe's "greenest" countries are under pressure to backtrack on wind farms as public anger grows over their impact on the countryside.

The hostility aroused by the Parham project is not unusual either. Some locals complain that wind farms are noisy, ugly and (citing estate agents) that they reduce property prices. Others, like John Constable, who lives 700 metres away from the airfield, say they are just inappropriate. “I happen to like the Chrysler building,” he says, “but I don't want it near my house.”

The inventor of the 'Gaia theory' and inspiration for the green movement, Dr James Lovelock, tells Andrea Kuhn why windfarms do not address the problems of global warming

In conclusion, this study has shown that in many countries deregulation is having the expected effect of increased competition leading to price reduction. However, it is evident that pricing in markets depends not just on the status of deregulation, but also on the broader aspects of competition. Key factors here include the balance of supply and demand, generation fuel costs, the learning process that new markets go through, competition within different market segments and the costs of access to transmission and distribution networks. Deregulation is a long-term process that requires sustained attention.