Wind farms

The letter by Joe Borg regarding the proposed Marfa wind farm (March 2) appeared several days after Alternattiva Demokratika's position on renewable energy from wind was made public. The Times carried a very scaled down version of the original press release.

To clarify AD's stand on the wind farm issue, while not ruling out the possibility of terrestrial farms, we believe the Marfa landscape could be best preserved through locating the turbines offshore as has been done to profit in several other countries.

Damage to the garigue is a high level impact on the Maltese environment and should be, if possible, avoided. The use of technology in the form of a signal emission to stop birds coming too close to the blades should be looked into in order to address the impact on native and migrating birds.

Energy providers should not overlook solar energy, which has been employed so successfully in neighbouring Cyprus. Investing in further promotion and incentives for renewable energy from the sun, together with more stringent measures to improve air quality, will help Malta to move closer to European and worldwide emissions targets.