Red flags
The media focus on cuts to police numbers in a budget crisis, the problems with the short-term let scheme and the lack of capacity on the Islay ferry route has obscured the lack of debate over the red flags on consumer power bills once the SNP implement the projects detailed in their Energy Paper (your report, 14 September).
The first red flag debt arises from the proposal to install 60GW of wind and solar power to meet an anticipated maximum demand of only 20GW. The 400 per cent over-capacity target highlights just how inefficient and unreliable is such a technology. Indeed, such is the SNP lack of faith in the plant that Humza Yousaf now plans to add a further 25GW of gas turbine plant to the mix to keep the lights on in Scotland.
That raises a second red flag over the cost of the Constraint Payment bill when, over nine months of the year, the system requirement is only 30 per cent of the winter maximum demand. meaning around 80GW of plant will demand subsidies to remain shut down. Note the lack of data from Holyrood over projected costs to those in fuel poverty.
The third red flag is the debt arising from an untried hydrogen-based generation system. Will the problems with electrolyser costs and building leak-proof hydrogen storage vessels simply be a repeat of the Glen Sannox/Glen Rosa saga? If the technology does not meet expectations then there will be no operational computer systems, no ATMs, no smart phones and no lights for schools and hospitals.
Surely Scottish consumers should be given the cost estimates of this SNP policy, especially following the warning from Vattenfall over the massive spike in Green Transition projects?
Ian Moir, Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway
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