Letter: People must be aware of power options

Published on Friday 21 May 2010 23:15

Colin McInnes (Letters, 20 May) admirably sets out the nuts and bolts of sea turbine cost and efficiency, showing that the £4 billion to be spent will produce 400MW.

His price comparison of this as being equal to a 1,650MW nuclear plant, excluding greater maintenance costs for turbines, may well be what our government is aiming at. It is not, however, what nuclear need cost.

Westinghouse (a company which used to be owned by British Nuclear until our government forced it to sell it to Japan) is selling its AP 1000 generator off the shelf for 1,200 per KW for the first reactor, which may fall to 800 per KW for subsequent reactors, so for the same 4bn we could get 4,500MW of electric capacity, 11 times as much.

Of course we won't get that because even self-styled "pro-nuclear" politicians want massive amounts of time and money-consuming regulation which, as can be seen, triples the cost, even though it still leaves nuclear less than a third of the cost of turbines and nearly a tenth of that of windmills. However, it is important that, whatever the final cost, the people are aware of the true options.

All economic experience shows that the formula, economic freedom + cheap power > economic growth, holds true. Britain already has some of the world's most expensive power, which is why we use less power per unit of GNP than any developed countries other than Ireland, Denmark and Singapore.

If our politicians insist on making it worse and increasing the 25,000 deaths a year from fuel poverty we have the right to know that this is what they are doing.

NEIL CRAIG

Woodlands Road

Glasgow

It is great news that investment in offshore renewable energy could power Scotland seven times over, according to the Scottish Government report (your report, 20 May) but it is also vital that we invest onshore too, in a smart way to deliver this energy.

The transmission grid was last refreshed after the Second World War. A need for major investment has been on the cards for a long time. The announcement that the National Grid is now committed to delivering 3.2 billion of investment has to be welcomed.

However, the need for the network to be able to cope with more fluid power sources means a straight replacement would not work; the network needs to get smart.

National Grid has been considering what has been required for a number of years and has only just unveiled a plan not to just patch up the current network but to future-proof and ensure that the new technologies are able to connect to the grid.

It is a huge but necessary investment, without which smart grids will struggle. It follows that a high level of investment from the distribution network operators will also be needed to secure our energy future.

TARA MCGEEHAN

Logica

Lochside Avenue

Edinburgh

A snap examination of the 1,588MW of electricity- producing wind farms in Scotland showed that they were only producing 25MW.

As a Hyperion Triga Reactor, which can be carried on the back of a lorry, produces 27MW, the further construction of wind farms seems utterly stupid.

ROBERT PATE

Old Edinburgh Road

Minnigaff