Energy secrecy
The article by Michael Sturrock on independence (Scotsman, 17 April) contained not a single reference to the cost of implementing a Just Transition in Scotland by 2045.
The Climate Emergency Review Group paper estimated the cost of a Green Revolution at £150 billion, the price of fitting a heat pump to a flat at £40,000 and to upgrsade rural homes to a Band C rating based on EPC standards at £33,000. All such details were suffering from a lack of transparency in the article.
Again no mention of the cost to energy consumers over repaying the capital debt for the 25GW ScotWind project or installing 20GW of on-shore windmills that will desecrate the Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland just to supply him with electricity. Except that it won’t.
There is great secrecy over the plan by the SNP to build 25GW of hydrogen fuelled gas turbines at some unknown location to keep the lights on, especially since windmills are inefficient (output falls with reductions in wind speed), unreliable (no wind means no energy) and unaffordable (capital costs higher than Hinkley Point C for similar annual output). However, the SNP have made no mention of the costs of electrolysers, the number required to meet the annual demand of the gas turbine plant or the debt built up to provide sufficient leak-proof storage vessels to allow gas turbines to keep the lights on.
Mr Sturrock made no mention of the fact that that independence results in a decade of austerity which means that IndyRef2 is surely irrelevant until consumers have repaid the hundreds of billions of pounds of debt required to meet Scottish net zero goals set by COP26. Time for the generation of pupils and students who marched in support of Greta to decide between the austerity of independence or doing our bit to save the planet!
Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway
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