Letter: Balance of power

Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, keeps referring to "nuclear and renewables" as if these were complementary and interchangeable technologies. This is absurd!

To provide the same reliable electricity supply as a nuclear power station an equivalent capacity wind farm has to be partnered by an equivalent capacity gas generator, but the carbon emissions reductions of the wind/gas fuelled partnership would only be a quarter of those achieved by the nuclear plant and their combined construction costs would be roughly twice as much.

So, for the same price, nuclear power is eight times more effective in reducing carbon emissions than is the wind farm/gas fuelled alternative. It is Chris Huhne's failure to understand and act upon these simple truths that is the root cause of the increased electricity bills that he is so keen to foist upon us.

William Oxenham

Easter Currie Place

Currie, Edinburgh