Letter: Wilson’s role

BRIAN Wilson (Perspective, 3 January) writes that installing tidal-stream turbines in the Pentland Firth is “fraught with unresolved difficulties”.

A paper with drawings and a description of how this could be done in the full depth of the Firth was published at a European conference in 2009.

Mr Wilson, or any reader, can see a copy by going to www.see.ed.ac.uk/~shs and downloading a file named “Pentland vertical axis”.

The first work on this idea was published in 1998, when Brian Wilson was a minister in the Department for Trade and Industry, which was responsible for energy matters.

The Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) worked on renewable energy for DTI.

In April 1998, AEA issued an early draft of an extremely favourable report, AEAT 3517, but this was then withdrawn. An application for money to test critical components was rejected because “the Pentland Firth is too regional”.

The project has never received any public funding.

If we had worked steadily from 1998, large numbers of 70 megawatt turbines could be in place now. The delay from 2001 to 2003 occurred when Brian Wilson was the Secretary of State at DTI.

Stephen Salter

Blackford Road

Edinburgh