Wave goodbye

The Scottish Government seemingly has spent at least a further £400,000 since 2008 in trying to offload a prize offer made by Alex Salmond of £10million for marine energy development (your report 9 May). Is this surprising? My guess is that the target in mind then was, in fact, wave energy. Over a decade ago the late Sir David Mackay, our then leading energy analyst and a keen advocate of renewables, observed that he did not think wave energy had much to offer.

In addition to the huge cost of the installations, wave energy conversion, unlike wind, takes place on the same plane as all other maritime activities. We would have to effectively block off an intolerable fraction of our Atlantic coastline to provide just 1 per cent of UK electricity demand, and that again from a variable source.

Mr Salmond, I’m afraid, was backing the wrong horse and we should note that the Scottish Government spent another £30m on wave energy conversion technology – and more astute investors still refused to take the bait.

It would benefit us more to scrap the Saltire Prize and use the money to fill in a few thousand potholes!

(DR) A MCCORMICK

Kirkland Road Terregles, Dumfries