Power plan not a bright idea – The Herald (letters)

I NOTE there are plans to produce renewable power by placing solar panels
around Glasgow (“Glasgow’s solar power mission”, The Herald, April 28).

I have roof solar panels, and they produce the power predicted by the
installer and due to subsidy in the form of the Feed-in Tariff, are
finan­cially viable … just.

Solar in Scotland is even more unpre­dictable and variable than wind power.
From the records I have kept, my monthly output ranged from 19.8 KW/hour
overall last December to 505.8 KW/Hour overall last July.

Unpredictable wind does provide power some of the time it is needed, but
solar only hits the high notes on sunny summer afternoons when demand is
low and already met by base load generation. There is an economic place for
solar – the hot deserts of the southern United States where it helps power
the massive air condi­tioning load in that country, but not in Glasgow.

Richard Heuchan,
15 Tower Drive, Gourock.