Sir,

I was rather puzzled by the letter from Janet Roberts in last week's Tenby Observer, in which she intimates that the profits from the wind turbines are going to 'land owners or shareholders - mainly overseas'.

In the interests of transparency, can your correspodent therefore inform us exactly who will receive the payment for allowing the turbine in question to be built and also the annual rental? And since she has previously furnished the precise dimensions of the proposed turbine, will she please tell us the precise amounts of payments if the application is successful? Will she also inform us precisely who will pay for the million pounds construction costs she has admitted it will take?

I also noted the list of desirable local projects which the windfall would help to finance, but I was surprised she omitted the building of fairy castles for the children to play in.

On a more serious note, I think we all realise that the availability of fossil fuel is finite and it is sensible to explore alternative sources, but the recent interest in obtaining gas from shale deposits (which the USA has been successfully exploiting for almost 10 years) might give us some extra time in which to do this.

Maybe harnessing of tidal power will be a more viable prospect since the tide ebbs and flows twice a day and is not dependent on wind or sun.

One thing, however, is indisputable: Wind turbines are a most expensive, inefficient, erratic and unreliable source of electricity, for which we are paying in our electricity bills, and in addition, we may be paying an even greater cost in the disfigurement of some of our most beautiful landscapes.

Is this the legacy we wish to bequeath to future generations?

Clifford Hall,