Burning money

The conflicting arguments put forward by Gill Turner (Letters, 1 August), Ronald Johnston and Gerald Edwards (3 August) all take the same route as Andrew Wilson in his Growth Report by ignoring the impact of energy costs in an independent Scotland.

The Holyrood policy of replacing gas with renewable electricity by 2017 will triple energy bills to around £4,000 a year. Why is the effect on the 35 per cent of Scots living in fuel poverty ignored by letter writers to The Scotsman? In addition, replacing 150 Twhours of gas will require around 60,000MW of wind turbines at a capital cost of £165 billion .

The demise of the UK grid means that English consumers will no longer be liable for meeting 92 per cent of such costs. That means an additional £10 billion a year costs (including interest payments) or a £4,000 increase in annual energy bills taking the total to £8,000 a year. Over the summer demand for energy plummets, hence 55,000MW of wind turbines will require Constraint Payments of £3bn a year to maintain grid stability, taking the total annual energy bill to £9,000. Note that this is 50 per cent of the average takehome wage for Scottish workers. Why is the cost of energy ignored by the vast majority of Scots when it will have such a massive impact on their standard of living ?

IAN MOIR

Queen Street, Castle Douglas