I AM dismayed to read that SSE’s investment strategy is to concentrate on wind (“Scottish energy giant in £1.2bn deal with Canadian investors”, The Herald, August 3). This is a policy already adopted by ScottishPower, who sold the Cruachan pump storage scheme, one of Scotland’s finest assets, and the Galloway hydro schemes to Drax.
There is something seriously amiss that those vital utility companies, once publicly-owned and engineering-led, are pursuing a high-risk strategy which has no engineering substance. The risk to shareholders is great, albeit trivial compared to the future suffering of Scotland’s electricity consumers faced with the prospect of unbearable rises in electricity charges and uncertainty of supply.
As if this was not bad enough, we are facing a climate change global catastrophe which cannot be avoided by this dangerous obsession with wind power. This is a distraction which is fed by politicians who are, to be kind, ignorant and naïve, or less kindly, irresponsible and lacking the integrity that requires unpopular legislation to reign in the profligate wasteful lifestyle of our affluent society. Wind power is not a lifeboat for us, it is a dangerous, distracting straw which we grasp at our peril. We have a problem, since those who question the absolute role of wind are often dismissed as heretics questioning a religious faith.
We can only hope that COP26 delivers a much more comprehensive understanding of what needs to be done and governments legislate for the necessary changes in our behaviour. Engineers could deliver solutions which protect our quality of life and, most important, enable the world’s poorest to share it. This cannot happen without enabling political leadership and time is running out fast.
Norman McNab, Killearn.
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