Nuclear power not wind turbines is the way forward for Scottish energy needs

The government approval of large wind farms in the Forth and Tay estuaries with their obvious attendant seabird massacres should disabuse anyone that thought this government had green pretensions.

We do have what are called green organisations, who supposedly protect wild life, but their apparent silence on these issues, except in grs pb, merely indicates their in difference.

Preserving our land, seas and wildlife for future generations requires mankind to retreat in part from their exploitation. That includes the destructive march of turbines in what was Scotland’s jewel, its unspoilt lands, wilderness and havens for wild life.

As for threatened coastal exploitation, sound carries very long distances in water. Where is the evidence that turbine vibrations easily heard above ground will not now damage life within the sea as well as that above it?

None of the above was ever necessary. When Alex Salmond came to power, he typically issued an edict, ‘no more nuclear power stations in Scotland’ despite their carbon-free generation. No debate, just commands from on high that relied heavily on public ignorance about nuclear power and of course in the hope of more votes for independence.

But two new nuclear power stations adjacent to Torness and Hunterston would have obviated the need for turbines of any kind. At current electricityprices from the two currently running, Scotland would have had more than enough cheap reliable electricity for many decades to come and the land would be spared the damage inflicted on them and now threatened to our coasts.

The enormous resources of uranium and thorium on this earth will far outlast those resources required to construct turbines, solar panels and other attempts to use tidal energy.

The name renewable refers only to wind and sun not to its exploitation. The future is definitely nuclear. PROFESSOR ANTHONY

TREWAVAS FRS FRSE Scientific Alliance Scotland North St David Street, Edinburgh

The energy policy of the Snp-dominated Scottish Government is not fit for purpose.

The installation of wind turbines on every windy hillside was driven by the SNP boast that Scotland would have “the best emission reduction targets in the world”. But at what cost?

According to research by the Renewable Energy Foundation ‘constraint payments’ of £69 million were made by the National Grid to Scottish wind farm operators in 2016 and totals £277 million since 2010.

A constraint payment is money paid to wind farms to switch off when there is too much electricity being produced.

But of course this does not come out of the National Grid pocket but is added to domestic and business energy bills.

Scotland will soon be the most crowded country in the world for wind turbines.

Scotland now has 2683 turbines with another 282 under construction and a further 2202 with planning consent. Thus building even more wind turbines will mean even more constraint payments and escalating energy bills.

Yet another reason to halt the march of these expensive, heavily subsidised, unreliable monstrosities.

CLARK CROSS Springfield Road, Linlithgow