Hot topic
Those who wax lyrical about the wealth of wind we have in Scotland close their eyes to the obvious shortcomings of an intermittent power source like wind turbines. Until we have something reliable – gas, nuclear, even coal – we will never be self-reliant and will often be subject to the severe effects of a storm like the one we recently experienced.
There is one source of clean power upon which we could rely and which is accessible to us using technology of which we have abundant experience thanks to the oil riches which are currently lambasted by the Green lobby in the Scottish Parliament. That technology is drilling and we can use that to drill into the Earth’s crust to use geothermal power, as happens in Iceland. Yes, the Earth’s crust may require drilling down 5km to achieve temperatures of 190C in the north-west zone of Scotland, but it is feasible and it was the subject of an independent report for the Scottish Government in 2013.
Surely, in the wake of COP26, this would be worth reviving, making use of the skills we have in our workforce – or are the Greens against this source of power too?
Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh
My generation
Gill Turner has leapt to the defence of Kate Forbes’ statement regarding renewable electricity in Scotland (Letters, 1 December). Ms Forbes referred to two years ago, so here are the figures for 2019 as published by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Scotland generated 30,521 GWh from renewable sources. Incidentally, the UK as a whole generated 120,515 GWh so Scotland produces around a quarter of that. Total generation in Scotland was 49,969 GWh so 61 per cent of the energy generated here was from renewables.
Scotland was a net exporter of electricity with consumption in Scotland amounting to 29,381 GWh. This, of course, is less than the 30,521 GWh generated by renewables. The SNP PR machine therefore manipulates the figures by discounting Bioenergy as a renewable source, reducing the renewable generation figure by 2,450 GWh and giving the 96 per cent statistic. This figure is disingenuous nonsense.
Scotland produces more renewable energy than it needs when conditions are favourable and much of the renewable energy is exported. Conversely, on windless days, Scotland imports electricity primarily generated from nuclear and gas sources. It would be more meaningful to present the proportion of electricity consumed in Scotland generated from renewable sources which, in 2019, was 56 per cent. Full Fact (which Ms Turner quotes) actually said: “To suggest that it’s almost 100 per cent is misleading.”
It is indeed good that Scotland generates and uses a high proportion of renewables but why is it necessary for politicians to deliberately mislead by exaggerating the figures? Is it because they would prefer not to acknowledge Scotland’s inter-dependence with the rest of the UK and the essential role the National Grid plays in balancing consumption with production?
George Rennie, Inverness
Renewed worries
I think that we should all be aware that no matter how many pigs you produce, if you can’t get them to market then you are going to go bust rather quickly. We can only have as much power generation in Scotland because we are part of the UK National Grid. Generation and transmission costs are heavily subsidised by UK consumers as a whole.
In a very few years generation in Scotland will be oriented very much towards the extreme North, ie very much higher transmission costs, overwhelmingly from intermittent sources, which means a position of supply instability and hence a less valuable product. So-called renewable energy is often claimed to be one of Scotland’s most valuable assets – it could very well turn out to be the proverbial pig in a poke.
(Dr) A McCormick, Dumfries
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