No replacement

David Purves (Letters, 7 June) makes a strong argument for the abandonment of combustion as a major source of energy and rightly condemns the proposal to build a new coal-fired power station in Ayrshire. However, his suggestion that conventional sources of energy can be replaced by renewable sources is absurd.

No matter how many wind farms or wave machines are built, the lack of a consistent wind means that we will still need as many conventional power stations as we have now to provide security of supply when the wind does not blow.

The only reason this coal-fired power station is being considered is because our existing nuclear power stations will soon be reaching the end of their natural lives.

Unless we follow the rest of the world and start building new nuclear power stations we will have to accept the construction of many more coal-fired power stations and the resulting damage to the atmosphere.

ALAN BLACK

Camus Avenue

Edinburgh