This Letter to the Editor, written by CO2 Coalition Member Euan Mearns, was published in The Press and Journal, December 15, 2023:

Sir, I have been asked by those living under the dark shadow of giant wind turbines and pylons to respond to Tor Justad (letters 8 December). I was going to respond in any case.

Not so long ago (2013), Scotland had two coal fired power stations at Longannet, and Cockenzie, both now closed. We had and still have Peterhead gas fired power station. We had two nuclear power stations at Hunterston B and Torness, where Hunterston B has now closed. Scotland also has a fleet of small hydroelectric power stations. All told, these power stations, that can be switched on and off at will to match supply to demand, could produce up to 8.3GW of power to meet a peak demand in Scotland of ~5GW. We had absolute electricity security and exported power to England via the 2GW of interconnectors at the time (2013), more or less all the time.

With station closures we have lost 4.9GW. Scotland can now only summon 3.4GW of firm capacity, reducing to 2.2GW if Torness is closed for maintenance or refuelling. This is a catastrophe made in Holyrood and Westminster.

Between 2013 and 2023, interconnector capacity with England has grown allowing Scotland to export up to 6GW of surplus wind power. Great? Giant wind turbines on top of every hill and giant pylons everywhere. This is turning the Scottish countryside into a gigantic concrete and metal intensive power station to enable the English to meet legally binding CO₂ reduction targets. Is this really what we want? The tragedy is that the SNP, Conservatives, Labour and the Lib Dems are all reading from the same scientifically and economically illiterate green hymn book.

When the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine, as was the case on 2^nd Dec (numerous P&J Letters), Scotland has imported up to 2.9GW from England during 2023. These imports are generated mainly from gas, nuclear and North American trees. Is it not ironic that Scotland is now dependent on England to keep the lights on 24/7?

Tor Justad makes a number of statements that are simply ill-informed or untrue. It has been shown time and again that spreading turbines over a large area does not guarantee production all the time. He touts geothermal as a source of baseload electricity supply. The only countries in the world that have geothermal power generation have active volcanos (e.g., Iceland, New Zealand, USA). So called “hot dry rock” geothermal has been tried many times and has always failed. Grid scale storage will prove to be unaffordable and yet another way of wrecking our environment with more pumped hydro storage reservoirs on the way. The public, and in particular politicians, need to be careful what they wish for.

Dr Euan Mearns

Aberdeen