Professor Mallia’s letter (Missing the wind for the rotors, TMID, 19 November) sent me scurrying off in search of last Wednesday’s copy of The Independent to reassure myself that I was not as wrong as he implies.

The part of my letter (16 November) which Prof. Mallia questioned was peppered with limiting clauses such as “not beyond the realms of possibility”, “if it were possible”, etc. My comments were therefore no more than speculation verging on wishful thinking and certainly not meant to be regarded as fact. There is no dispute whatsoever that turbines are not “Harry Potter devices” that will produce electricity willy-nilly wherever they are put up. It is also correct, as Prof. Mallia points out, that there is a multitude of constraints to setting up wind farms which are related to prevailing wind conditions, rotor size, social, environmental and other factors.

The main point in my letter was whether David Lindsay was right in saying that it is possible to generate only 5.4 per cent of our electricity requirement from land-based wind turbines. My speculation was that this is not the case. I cautiously said this: “… though the limiting factor in Malta is space, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that a large part of our electricity could be generated from wind. I went on to say “for instance, if it were possible to set up, say, five wind farms of 10-12 turbines, that would reduce our fossil fuel consumption by 25 per cent.”

If this speculation is demonstrably invalid it would be a pity, because this would mean that only an insignificant proportion of our energy requirements can be generated from land-based turbines. Land space is admittedly limited in Malta, and winds might not be as strong and constant as one would wish. On the other hand, much of our south and west is sparsely populated and many parts are sufficiently elevated and exposed that they might receive enough wind to make its exploitation a possibility, even if they do not directly face our prevailing NW wind.

Maybe Prof. Mallia is in possession of data that exclude this possibility. If so, then my letter was out of place and I trust that I will be forgiven for allowing myself to be carried away by my enthusiasm for exploitation of renewable energy.

Dr George Debono

Sliema