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Letter to the Sunday Herald |
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Written by Alan Shaw
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Sunday, 06 January 2008 |
In response to the Sunday Herald article 6th January 2008 by Torcuil Crichton:
"Britain has backed itself into a corner on energy- with no easy way out"
As a long retired member of the consortium which designed and constructed the Hunterston B and Torness nuclear and Inverkip oil fired power stations I am saddened by the public mental confusion over electricity supply displayed in my native Scotland.
When Lord Weir's Report was embodied into law as the Electricity Act 1926 empowering the new nationalised Central Electricity Board to construct the 132kV national grid the Central Scotland Electrccity Region scored a double first by building the first grid tower near Edinburgh in April 1928 and energising the UK national grid from Portobello Power station in April 1930.
Twenty five years later the Chapel Cross and Hunterston A were among the first nuclear power station in the UK. Today nearly 40 per cent of Scotland's electricity generation is still from nuclear power, 50 per cent from coal and gas and oil and 10per cent from hydro.
Load demand dictates that 55 per cent of Scotland's (and UK) electricity in GWh must be generated continuously to meet the base load, a job impossible from intermittent sources such as wind, solar and other renewable energies.
Scotland can simply not afford to reduce its nuclear and coal generated electricity. Otherwise the lights will go out in earnest. The way to clean coal must urgently be found. Nuclear produces no greenhouse gases. Proof lies in France which genertates over 80 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power and exports to its neighbours the cleanest and cheapest electricity in Europe.
Alan Shaw
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