In reply to the Energy Minister’s letter (July 12), the boast that our
renewable capacity will be moving from 4GW to more than 14GW by 2020 is
hollow, since the majority of this is planned to come from wind power.
The transmission of large amounts of electricity south of the Border may be
possible with the addition of extra interconnectors, but in practice this
will hardly ever be available at the right times.
If the 14GW was a mixture of hydro, nuclear and fossil fuel-generated
electricity, up to about 10GW could always be available at times of need.
If the 14GW capacity is wind driven, 10GW might be available for a few
random hours over a year, (the average would be in the region of 3GW), but
much more damagingly there would often be hours or days on end with no
electricity available at all.
No way to help keep the lights on, and a very hollow asset.
Bruce McIntosh,
Corriedoo, Dalry, Castle Douglas.
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