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		MEP blown away by wind week celebration Monday, 15th June 2009 East Midlands Conservative MEP Roger Helmer has today spoken out about the British Wind Energy Association’s "UK Wind Week 2009". The event which has been established to coincide with "Global Wind Day" on June 15th, has been extended to a week of activities for wind farms and supporters to celebrate wind energy. Mr Helmer dismisses the celebratory week, commenting; “As far as wind energy is concerned, there is nothing much to celebrate. It fails to create a substantial amount of energy. Instead we get a pathetic, intermittent trickle of electricity which needs to be backed up by conventional main-stream base-load generation like coal and nuclear. To back up wind power, these stations have to be kept running below capacity and intermittently, greatly reducing their efficiency and off-setting any savings from wind.” Local wind farm activist Keith Kilbane adds: “Government – probably encouraged by BWEA lobbying – dismisses or simply ignores evidence that wind as a source of electricity is more of a problem than a solution. Whole communities are having to spend fortunes defending their immediate living conditions against the imposition of lots of massive rotating machines that deliver no quantifiable, true (as opposed to imagined) benefit” Mr Helmer adds: “Wind turbines are garden ornaments, not power stations. Now is the time to start investing in real base-load energy production, as wind just can't fill the gap.”