I have been watching the energy debate withnote-0 ever-mountingnote-1 exasperation. On the one hand, we have the Government trying to persuade us to “invest” in noisy, inefficient heat pumps and, on the other, the SNP trying to cover Scotland with Chinese-built wind turbines, which are also vastly expensive, blotting the landscape, killing wildlife and requiring a subsidy when it’s too windy for them to operate.
What are we to do? Simple. I have more than once advocated using our technical know-how gained in the oil industry to drill down to the hotter regions in the earth’s crust for geothermal power, as the Icelanders do. This is the cleanest source of power imaginable. Indeed, recently, a friend in Aberdeenshire found that a neighbour who is ex-oil industry had powered his entire house by just those means.
The trouble is that the very people who could start trialling this are totally focused on unsightly, inefficient wind turbines. They have no vision.
Andrew HN Gray, Edinburgh
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