Bias on the grid

It is really good news that Scotland has taken a world-leading role in the marine energy industry (your report, 17 March).

Scotland is reckoned to have a quarter of Europe's potential for generating electricity from wind and tidal power. However, further growth is undermined by the fact that it costs energy suppliers 21.58 per kilowatt to connect to the national grid in Lewis, Orkney and Shetland, while there's a subsidy of 2.70 paid in Greater London and a 6.68 bonus for con necting to the grid in Cornwall.

So long as this discrimination exists, the UK government is merely paying lip service to helping tidal and marine renewable energy while pushing ahead with very expensive nuclear power stations.

ANDREW ROSIE

MacDowall Road

Edinburgh

It was encouraging to read the letter from senior representatives of the RSPB, Friends of the Earth and WWF Scotland in The Scotsman (Letters, 17 March) protesting against the environmental damage the new power station at Hunterston will cause to the wildlife of the Clyde.

I look forward to a similar letter from these organisations protesting about the potentially much more extensive environmental damage likely to be caused by plans announced yesterday for more than a thousand so-called marine renewable devices to be placed in the sea around Orkney (your report, 17 March).

ALAN BLACK

Camus Avenue

Edinburgh