Scotsman letters
We have always been a fan of Alexander Mckay’s common sense letters so we were a little taken aback when we read his latest, which began: “I am delighted at the news of the Berwick Bank windfarm development. Every little helps.”
It wasn’t until we associated the “Every little helps” with the Tesco supermarket slogan that the penny finally dropped.
Thankfully he hadn’t lost his marbles at all, it was his own brand sense of humour coming into play.
We hope everyone else was a bit quicker on the uptake!
Aileen Jackson Scotland Against Spin, Uplawmoor, East
Renfrewshire
Alexander Mckay (16 January) points out that every wind farm needs either fossil fuel or nuclear back-up.
The Scotsman published my letter concerning intermittency in 2007. The British Wind Association claimed they would provide a billion cups of tea at Christmas, but they didn’t. They have provided energy but at what cost? If I ruled the world, I would require every politician to have a science degree.
In 2017, Sir Dieter Helm, Professor of Economic Policy
at Oxford University, was tasked by the then UK government with writing a report on our energy system. Unfortunately, his advice that renewable energy firms should pay for intermittency costs they incur was ignored. If renewable energy companies had been responsible, they would have had a bill of £21 million for one day’s electricity on 8 January 2026, not us.
Now we have massive intermittency costs, constraints payments, and grid expansion costs, purely to cope with scattered renewables and an insecure grid. The scottish government has ruled out nuclear. I question how the reliable base load contribution (around 25 per cent) of Torness can be replaced by the 2030 decommission deadline?
It was announced in October that the predicted load factor of wind farms is a quarter less than expected. This news does not seem to have even registered in Scotland.
China has had a breakthrough with nuclear fusion – no waste, unlimited energy. I predict, as with the moon landing, the prize is so great it will happen. Decisions makers, please take time before allowing yet more turbines and pylons.
Celia Hobbs Penicuik, Midlothian
We have always been a fan of Alexander Mckay’s common sense letters so we were a little taken aback when we read his latest, which began: “I am delighted at the news of the Berwick Bank windfarm development. Every little helps.”
It wasn’t until we associated the “Every little helps” with the Tesco supermarket slogan that the penny finally dropped.
Thankfully he hadn’t lost his marbles at all, it was his own brand sense of humour coming into play.
We hope everyone else was a bit quicker on the uptake!
Aileen Jackson Scotland Against Spin, Uplawmoor, East
Renfrewshire
Alexander Mckay (16 January) points out that every wind farm needs either fossil fuel or nuclear back-up.
The Scotsman published my letter concerning intermittency in 2007. The British Wind Association claimed they would provide a billion cups of tea at Christmas, but they didn’t. They have provided energy but at what cost? If I ruled the world, I would require every politician to have a science degree.
In 2017, Sir Dieter Helm, Professor of Economic Policy
at Oxford University, was tasked by the then UK government with writing a report on our energy system. Unfortunately, his advice that renewable energy firms should pay for intermittency costs they incur was ignored. If renewable energy companies had been responsible, they would have had a bill of £21 million for one day’s electricity on 8 January 2026, not us.
Now we have massive intermittency costs, constraints payments, and grid expansion costs, purely to cope with scattered renewables and an insecure grid. The scottish government has ruled out nuclear. I question how the reliable base load contribution (around 25 per cent) of Torness can be replaced by the 2030 decommission deadline?
It was announced in October that the predicted load factor of wind farms is a quarter less than expected. This news does not seem to have even registered in Scotland.
China has had a breakthrough with nuclear fusion – no waste, unlimited energy. I predict, as with the moon landing, the prize is so great it will happen. Decisions makers, please take time before allowing yet more turbines and pylons.
Celia Hobbs Penicuik, Midlothian
Dr Geraldine Prince makes many points which need scrutiny (Letters, 15 January).
She states what taxation delivers on many points, many of which are the flagship policies of the woeful SNP regime at Holyrood. All freebies costing the nation billions, all designed to get votes and all paid for by those willing to drag their posteriors off the sofa to go to work.
To mention but three, let’s begin with the “strike free NHS” – where is the estimated £189 million coming from, when we are facing a £1 billion black hole?
As for the disabled and the “youthful 60-plus” getting free bus travel, this is not means tested so just a blanket vote-winning bribe.
Then there’s the free tuition fees for university – another non-means tested waste of public money – look at the state of our colleges and universities, financially they are in tatters.
Dr Prince then goes on to extol “clean seas, pristine beaches and stunning empty wilderness”. What a view, while sitting on said beach looking out to sea, Berwick Bank wind farm waving majestically back as we are further crippled by the subsidies to the owning companies.
As for empty wilderness, there will soon be more windfarms than people, with planning pushed through against the wishes of communities in a race to achieve the unachievable net zero goals, while ignoring the cleanest, safest source of energy, nuclear power.
David Millar, Lauder, Scottish Borders
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