Herald letters
The SAS letter which was in the Scotsman and the National on Saturday is also published in the Herald today.
Where is the vision to provide jobs from green energy projects?
What the Berwick Bank announcement (“‘World’s largest’ wind farm gets green light from Scots ministers”, The Herald, August 1) failed to mention is the manufacture of equipment, as we have no facility. No plans announced for a new manufacturing plant being built to provide the turbines, blades, cable and caissons and where the subsea structures will be built? Currently we import the majority of the equipment required and build some of the subsea structures but most are built abroad. This is where the real sustainable jobs can be created but no mention of any of that, other than it will provide cheaper electricity. We’ve all heard that one before.
Both Westminster and Holyrood focus on the production of green energy but fail to provide the major benefits of manufacturing the components that would provide work for thousands. There is no ambition, vision or plan for our manufacturing industry but they will be providing millions in funding for rich energy companies while manufacturing is bereft of work.
Robert Buirds, Port Glasgow.
The public will be sickened
The decision in principle by the Scottish Government to grant planning permission for a completely unnecessary massive offshore wind farm, Berwick Bank, to be constructed in an environmentally sensitive location beggars belief, especially given the scale of the well-judged opposition which has simply been ignored.
We note that “SSE Renewables will have to provide a plan to counter any impact the wind farm may have on seabirds to be approved by ministers”, but this is thin gruel, especially as SSE is quoted as admitting in its own environmental impact assessment that more than 31,000 bird collisions are estimated during its lifespan. What will its proposed “mitigation” provide? It is to be hoped that it will be something better than the farcically inappropriate plans that Equinor has put in place to construct an inappropriately sited nesting habitat for Arctic terns hundreds of miles from its proposed massive wind farm extension off the coast of Norfolk. Whatever it is, it is difficult to see how it can provide more than a small sticking plaster for a deliberate act of ecocide that should never have been granted permission
The Scottish Government may well have shot itself in the foot. Even people who would not normally object to a wind farm are sickened by this decision. The sleeping giant in the name of Joe Public has awakened.
Aileen Jackson, Scotland Against Spin, Uplawmoor.
Energy transition is a farce
The energy transition of Scotland (and the UK) is veering from ambition to farce. Most people acknowledge climate change’s reality and support action, but current policies are incoherent and self-defeating. Shutting down North Sea oil and gas while obsessing over intermittent wind energy leaves us all paying a steep price.
That price is staggering. Our energy costs, the highest in Europe and roughly four times those in the US, strangle industry, export our carbon footprint to high coal-burning nations, deter investment, and undermine ambitions to lead in high-tech sectors like artificial intelligence. Data centres, vital for AI, demand vast electricity and water supplies – ambitions that will vanish without secure, affordable power.
Wind power has a role, but its limitations are stark. Intermittent turbines require 100% backup like costly, potentially hazardous battery parks, idling gas plants, and nearly doubled transmission lines scarring the Highlands. We must also confront the “green” components’ toxic waste and China’s dominance of the supply chain, leaving us strategically vulnerable.
Meanwhile, a gold rush mentality prevails. Landowners and foreign developers reap fortunes, communities receive scant “shiny beads”, and massive infrastructure rises despite local objections. This mishmash of ideas, driven by political vanity rather than strategy, lacks joined-up thinking.
In the First World War, people spoke of “lions led by donkeys”. Today, we have citizens and businesses led by donkey politicians, stumbling through an energy policy that is economically ruinous and strategically reckless.
The solution is obvious: a balanced energy mix: renewables, nuclear for baseload, and domestic hydrocarbons (including “clean” cheap coal for specific industries like steel and AI) to bridge intermittent failures and the high cost of renewables. Without this, net zero risks collapsing under its own absurdities.
Ian Lakin, Aberdeen.
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