Still no facts on renewables – Herald

I AM grateful to Alan J Sangster (Letters, March 29) for his response to my
letter (March 25) seeking verifiable facts supporting the ability of
renewables to consistently provide stable base-load capacity over the
national grid. Unfortunately he fails to provide a single actual fact in
relation to my question.

I am encouraged to learn that the technologies he cites – such as MES
(massive energy storage) and a European supergrid may very well be the
long-term solution, but as I understand it, the current extensions to the
life of existing nuclear stations such as Torness stretch to 2030. Given
the sheer scale of the infrastructure projects required to implement the
new storage and distribution solutions and – perhaps more importantly – the
current lack of any international co-ordinating body to guide and drive
forward the planning and funding of them, it seems unlikely that these
solutions will be in place and operational anywhere near 2030.

Mr Sangster admits to concerns over this in his closing sentence: “Progress
in realising such systems is limited only by the political will of
governments to release or encourage investment”.

Regrettably we still await the comfort of realistic facts and figures to
assure us that the lights will not go out.

Lewis Niven,
78 Eastcote Avenue, Glasgow.