Pumped storage is by definition not renewable energy! Our tides have pumped vast quantities of water uphill for millions of years, twice a day, without the need for any giant bird-mincers, or ruined landscapes. It’s called tidal power.

The concrete required in hydro storage plants, for a paltry few extra minutes of back-up energy, is 18 times greater than even a nuclear plant which provides constant, baseload power, 365 days a year. The catastrophic damage that construction traffic will cause doesn’t bear thinking about. Nuclear plants in the UK, for example, require 2,025 times less land than wind.

The Great Glen and Scotland's scenic grandeur should be permanently protected for our children to inherit. It is the beating heart of our tourist industry and ought not to be trashed further, because of an ill-thought-out energy policy.

The Scottish landscape should remain as unsullied as possible, says reader (Picture: Andy Buchanan/Getty)

If ”renewables” are so great for the environment, why do they keep destroying it?

George Herraghty, Lhanbryde, Moray

Missing out

The UK Government is not working in Scotland’s interests when it comes to funding renewable energy. News SSE is to invest £100 million into the Coire Glas hydro scheme is welcome and it should be noted that the Scottish Government approved the pumped storage facility in 2020 but SSE and Drax, who plan to expand the only other pumped storage scheme inside Ben Cruachan, still need the UK Government to confirm Contracts for Difference to guarantee protection against volatile wholesale prices and also to protect consumers. The UK Government is dragging its feet on this while spending billions to subsidise and grant such guarantees to nuclear energy power stations that are more expensive for consumers.

Scottish renewable energy producers pay the highest National Grid transmission charges in Europe and twice that of their nearest competitors in the North of England. National Grid figures revealed Scottish generators will be unfairly penalised and forced to pay £465 million a year in transmission charges by 2026/27 – while England and Wales will be handed a subsidy of £30m a year.

Despite the North East of Scotland having the greatest expertise and best infrastructure, the UK government chose sites on the Humber and Liverpool for the first round of funding for Carbon Capture and snubbed the Acorn project at St Fergus gas terminal.

Scotland has produced as much oil and gas as Norway but the hundreds of billions in taxation that flowed to the Treasury in London have not been invested in Scotland’s clean energy of the future. Norway produces 95 per cent of its electric from hydropower generation and built the first hydrogen ferry in 2021 while Scotland is missing out on its vast hydrogen resources at a time when the EU is subsidising hydrogen production and Germany is desperate for a North Sea pipeline.

Fraser Grant, Edinburgh

Keep lights on

The article by Stephen Mcilkenny on the proposed £1.5 billion power station at Coire Glas states “Coire Glas can power three million homes with firm, flexible electricity for up to 24 hours”. However, the data that was not provided by SSE is that, in the winter of 2010, there was a six-week period during which the wind failed to blow, hence it will take another 40 hydropower stations similar to Coire Glas to keep the lights on in Scotland, especially if the 25GW hydrogen-based gas turbine technology adopted by the Energy Secretary fails to deliver.

Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway

Ferry lesson

The MV Alfred has been chartered from Pentland Ferries to ease Calmac’s problems at a cost of £9 million over the next nine months (your report, 21 March). The MV Alfred was built in a Vietnamese shipyard with its keel laid down in April 2017. It entered service on 1 November 2019 some two and a half years later. Contrast this with the MV Glen Sannox launched in November 2017 with painted windows, false funnels and an inappropriate bow. It is now not due for service until late 2023, six years after construction started.

One wonders if the Scottish Government will learn any lessons from this. The people of the western seaboard of Scotland have certainly learned a few about the performance of the Scottish Government.

Paul Birrell, Linlithgow, West Lothian

Shrinking feeling

Unlike most people, and this includes top SNP official Mike Russell who says the SNP is in a “tremendous mess”, Nicola Sturgeon denies that there is a problem and shrugs off her party’s woes as a matter of “growing pains”. Last weekend the truth finally emerged from behind her husband's lies about the SNP membership numbers and the figures revealed a 30 per cent drop in membership over the last year or so.

In the light of this her use of the expression "growing pains" is singularly inappropriate. “Shrinking pains” would be more apposite. Of course, she claims that she was completely unaware of the drop in membership. Really? In a flurry of media attention-seeking this week she is now telling us that she wasn’t out of step with public opinion over the Gender Recognition Reform Bill. Is this another of her trademark memory lapses? Her time in the spotlight is over. Why doesn't she just go quietly?

D Mason, Penicuik, Midlothian

Unduly smug

Not only do the SNP’s current substantial problems reveal much about the state of Scottish politics, but so too do the reactions of their opponents. They have been presented with the greatest opportunity to hurt the SNP in over a decade, but are too smug and blinkered by settling scores to take it.

Putting aside that none of them will ever achieve as much success in politics than the outgoing Nicola Sturgeon and SNP Chief Executive Peter Murrell, they should be telling us why they are a better alternative and how their own party’s governance is more trustworthy than the SNP’s. Instead, and in the midst of a cost of living crisis that normal people are focused on, we’ve had the frankly embarrassing spectacle of political pundits on TV, in papers and online salivating over the demise of their opponents and being unable to resist self-indulgent schadenfreude.

As well as this giving so much away about their characters and the polarised political culture which they lack the self-awareness to know that they are contributing to, all it does is remind us why so many abandoned them to vote SNP in the first place.

Jessica Blantyre, Edinburgh

Policies please

After reading Victor Clements's letter (21 March) I just hope Kate Forbes, my tip for next First Minister, doesn't take Brian Monteith’s advice and call an early Holyrood election.

History tells that when independence is off the table – at least in voters’ minds – the SNP do well and notwithstanding the current “mess” if Ms Forbes continues her mantra of good governance, probity and focus on the economy and growth – and the opposition parties conduct another lacklustre “we're not the SNP” campaign – she might just squeeze it, especially if Labour's seeming strategy of relying on wooing back former voters backfires.

If they can't muster innovative policies themselves Scottish Labour and Conservatives would do well, as a holding strategy, to “put a kilt on” and promote the realistic policies coming out of their UK leaderships on Brexit, public finance, immigration, childcare, NHS reform, gender legislation, education, energy policy and getting people back to work.

If you speak to pro-UK Scottish politicians the main reason given for not having any policies is the SNP will just steal them. I don't buy that. The three biggest upheavals in British politics – Thatcher in 1979, Blair in 1997 and Salmond in 2008 – came about after several years of assiduous wooing of the public and interest groups, such as the business community, by the leadership.

Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire

Buted out

We're told Bute House, Nicola Sturgeon’s official residence, is to be closed for a lengthy duration for essential repairs. It's unstable, even dangerous. Apparently, it's become structurally unsound over the years Sturgeon has been its tenant. Parts of the building are rotten beyond repair, leaks everywhere, and it’s deemed a health and safety hazard. In fact, its entire fabric is so defective that it's falling apart. As the integrity of SNP senior management hits the headlines, has Bute House become an all-too appropriate metaphor?

Martin Redfern, Melrose, Roxburghshire

Pitch perfect?

The VAR system is fine. The downside is it is being operated by the same incompetent officials who are on the field, which accounts for some obvious errors not being corrected. Without VAR Hibs would not have been awarded a penalty on Saturday and Celtic would have received a second one.

Apart from demonstrating the very poor level of officiating in Scotland it also showed the readiness for officials to give contentious decisions on the field in favour of the Old Firm. The fact that these clubs complain about VAR shows that at least other clubs are getting decisions that they haven’t had in the past.

Ian Lewis, Edinburgh

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Readers' Letters: Pump storage scheme not worth cost to Scotland

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