Hydrogen as a green energy reservoir could meet increased demand
sir – Philip Johnston (Comment, January 22) is correct when he says that hydrogen is the solution to carbon-dioxide-free energy.
However, the amount of electricity required to generate the hydrogen is immense: it would add to our electricity demand by 20-30 per cent. This need not be a problem if a little joined-up thinking is employed.
The hydrogen should be used as a reservoir, so that it can be generated by renewables when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing. It would then produce electricity through fuel cells when the renewables are not on stream. A sensible approach would be to have a mix of renewables, hydrogen, and carbon-dioxide-free nuclear power as our green energy future. Professor RG Faulkner
Loughborough, Leicestershire
sir – Decarbonisation – the alarmists’ preventative for adverse climate changes – threatens to ruin many Western lifestyles and economies, while those of the US, China and India would remain unhampered. The fad of man-made climate changes will pass, like all such threats. Dr Charles Wardrop
Perth
sir – Over the past year I have changed from plastic razors to a metal safety razor, dropped shampoo bottles in favour of shampoo soap bars and have welcomed mineral water that is at last available in glass bottles.
I bought only one plastic water bottle – and that was for a driver in whose car I was travelling on a hot summer day. He insisted – otherwise I might not have got home in his electric car.
I hope Greta is pleased. It is a start. Charles Leith
Fordingbridge, Hampshire
sir – The naivety of District Judge Michael Snow, who commended Etienne Stott’s commitment to Extinction Rebellion’s cause, is jaw-dropping (“Olympian avoids jail over ER protest”, report, January 22).
Stott, like many law-breakers rallying to Extinction Rebellion’s sinister flag, was cannon fodder for a dangerous organisation led by people committed to changing society fundamentally and ruthlessly.
Our freedom to move would be dictated by “people’s assemblies”. What we could eat would be controlled by the same “democratically” elected groups, and it would certainly be plant-based. Indeed, whether we could keep a pet would be decided by these dystopian zealots. Charles Foster
Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire
sir – One wonders whether Greta Thunberg will, in a few years’ time, need to paraphrase Mark Twain’s remark: “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learnt.” Tony Lawson
Langley, Berkshire