Scotsman letters

I occasionally have a glance at the UK grid supply. In the past two weeks there were at least two days when wind’s contribution was only about 1 per cent of requirement and one day when it was 50 per cent. How on earth would we cope with with such an erratic situation without gas and nuclear (the latter including up to 10 per cent of UK power from France)?

Scotland’s remaining nuclear station at Torness provides a reliable 10 per cent of our electricity. It is due to close in just four years’ time. John Swinney has vowed that he would use planning permission to ban any new nuclear power in Scotland. To equal the Torness contribution will require about 500 of the largest wind turbines plus the essential back-up storage and of course hundreds of square miles of extra grid.

Dr A Mccormick Terregles, Dumfries and Galloway