Pricey experiment
Alistair Carmichael’s article “The £1bn bill to stop turbines turning is scandalous waste,”(Perspective, 30 August) raises the issue of constraint payments to energy companies. The pricing of energy has become very complex and these prices are dominated by the price of gas, which the UK government linked to the price of all generating sources. The constraint payments are a result of wind generation being intermittent and generating power which cannot be taken by the grid.
The British Energy Security Strategy launched in 2022 placed great emphasis on the potential for wind, solar and nuclear power to reduce Britain’s reliance on gas imports and help to protect consumers from high prices as well as reduce carbon dioxide emissions. It will take some years to bring to fruition but will only be achieved with a significant increase in nuclear generating capacity. Communities that are expected to host renewable schemes will only benefit if the price of electricity is reduced by 30 per cent, which can be achieved if GB Energy takes the electricity section of the National Grid Company into public ownership and invests in the electricity supply and distribution industry using government borrowing rates.
The time has come for politicians to accept that privatisation of the electricity industry in 1990 has been a very expensive experiment.
Charles Scott, Edinburgh
World leading?
Paul Wilson says “Calls for climate policy debate will only grow as economic reality bites even harder” (Perspective, 29 August). Correct. He says, “Things can only get worse if we pursue sprint to net zero”.
How true, since our politicians have been deceived by the green brigade and those in the renewables industry. What politicians should be saying is that renewable electricity is mega-expensive as well as unreliable and that we need reliable gas and nuclear to keep the lights on. Forty per cent of the world’s electricity is generated by coal producing cheap electricity to drive countries’ economies.
The frequent promises by politicians and the wind industry of cheap, reliable, renewable electricity from the 11,000 turbines scarring Scotland’s landscapes was just a green smokescreen full of hot air. Windfarm operators in Scotland (mostly foreign) have been paid over £205 million so far this year to turn off their turbines and have to date received £1 billion of constraint payments which significantly increased UK electricity bills. Constraint payments are made when the grid is unable to cope with the extra electricity on a windy day, and who wants electricity in the middle of the night?
This constraint payment farce will continue until a reliable transmission structure is put into place to supply England. Why did the Scottish Government not instruct councils to freeze wind farm planning applications until a reliable transmission structure was in place?
Simple, the SNP wanted to boast that “Scotland leads the world in renewables”.
Clark Cross, Linlithgow, West Lothian
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