Letter: Energy boost

Steuart Campbell (Letters, 24 June) is right to point out that the capital costs of nuclear plants will be borne by the utilities which build them, but he neglects to mention that this is the case for most other power plants as well (including wind).

Since the capital cost of new nuclear plants currently has a high degree of uncertainty, the Electricity Market Reform (EMR) White Paper, to be presented to parliament before the summer recess, will contain a set of economic incentives (subsidies) to ensure that utilities build nuclear plants.

Without such subsidies it is very likely that we would have a gas-dominated power system, owing to the quick payback on investment which that technology provides.

This may have been a good thing for electricity prices in the 1980s, when we happily burned our way through most of the North Sea reserves, but any cursory glance at gas prices in recent decades indicates the long-term folly of that path.

The Norwegians must be laughing all the way to their substantial pension pots.

David McMillan

Westbank Quadrant

Glasgow