CLAIRE Whitehouse boasts that Scotland’s renewables produced the equivalent
of 97 per cent of the country’s electricity consumption in 2020, mostly
from wind power (“Railway electrification signals acceleration towards net
zero”, The Herald, December 23). The theoretical capacity of the UK’s
metered wind farms is 19,502 MW (megawatts), however from the 16th to the
22nd of this month the total generation of these wind farms never exceeded
3,400 MW as the UK and its seas were engulfed in a high pressure weather
system. This was for more than six days during a time of winter demand.
Combine this with the fact that one of Scotland’s four ancient nuclear
reactors recently shut down forever, and its easy to see that Scottish
Government policy on energy is going to be ruinous. If this six-day
windless period were to happen in the not too distant future when all of
Scotland’s domestic energy generation will be provided by wind farms, solar
panels and a precious tiny amount of hydro, then Ms Whitehouse’s trains
won’t be going anywhere.
Geoff Moore, Alness.
Why should prices soar?
DESPITE all my degrees and certificates sometimes I struggle to comprehend.
I just can’t understand why there will be a 500% increase in the wholesale
price of gas as a result of a “crisis” (“‘National crisis’ warning as
energy bills set for 50% rise”, The Herald, December 24). Try as I might I
cannot see reports of the lights going out all over Europe or anywhere
else. Demand may have increased but there has been no obvious break in the
supply chain so one imagines those who harvest the energy must be coping
with the increased demand, else all of Europe would be experiencing
blackouts. My simplistic perhaps naive brain cannot understand why
producers should suddenly be allowed to charge 500% more per unit simply
because they are selling more of the same thing.
I know the “crisis” has a large element of geopolitics in the background,
Nato deliberately picking at the scab of a “cold war” that never actually
happened when Russia is a major gas exporter to Europe and the grumbling
war in Syria which is actually about Persian Gulf gas pipelines are major
contributors. Whatever happens, we the general public, the workers, the
ones who actually create the wealth will end up passing more of our wages
or pensions to an Establishment who, just as they have done during the
recent period of austerity, will get richer as we get poorer. If I can see
that, so must our Government? Surely the role of government is to protect
the general public not the interests of the rich.
David J Crawford, Glasgow.
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