One reader from Bucks, in England, wrote to say that the first wind turbine for electricity production was built by Prof. James Blyth of Anderson’s College in Glasgow in 1887. He reminded Huhne that that was 45 years before the atom was split in Cambridge in 1932 and 69 years before the world’s first full-scale nuclear power station was commissioned at Calder Hall in 1956.
Another reader from London wrote to say “mature†or “infant†are “in the eye (or ideology) of the beholder … The harnessing of wind power predates [nuclear] by several centuries – witness the travails of Dom Quixote – it is not just recently that the Spanish have been covering their countryside with windmills.â€
The reader also made a comment about hydro. He said that “electric power has been generated from hydro sources since at least the 19th century. And then of course, when it comes to solar energy, there is the famous “solar ovenâ€, built in 1767 by Horace-Bénédict de Saussureâ€.
It sounds like Chris Huhne was skipping history lessons as a schoolboy…
Great article! I am going to send this out to my followers on twitter, I think that they will enjoy it as well.
Would you be interested in doing a feature post for me? Let me know.