Energy costs

Scottish Renewables director Niall Stuart (Letters, 21 October) is selective in his quotation from the 2010 Mott MacDonald report on energy costs. The report clearly states that its estimates are for generation only, based on plant life-cycle costs to deliver energy to the nearest substation, and do not account for the cost of back-up supply for renewables, renewable obligation payments or transmission grid reinforcement. All of these costs are, in the end, passed on to industry and domestic consumers.

Mr Stuart could have noted that Mott MacDonald expects nuclear to be the lowest-cost long-term generator, including waste and decommissioning liabilities. Long-term nuclear life-cycle costs are estimated at £68 per MW-hr, less than onshore wind (£86 per MW-hr) and significantly less than offshore wind (£112 per MW-hr).

In quoting selectively from the Mott MacDonald report, Mr Stuart implies that onshore wind is simply cheaper than nuclear, but unfortunately fails to make clear that this estimate is only for premium first-of-a-kind costs for nuclear, rather than long-term costs and that the cost for onshore wind explicitly excludes back-up generation and renewable obligation payments.

COLIN R McINNES

Williamwood Park West

Netherlee, Glasgow