KEITH Anderson, ScottishPower's chief corporate office writes about investing massive sums in power generation ("We must invest energy on keeping the lights on for the longer term", Agenda, The Herald, May 4) without mentioning microgeneration and the benefits of schemes such as small-scale wind generators, run-of-river schemes, geothermal heat, that can help to avoid excess investment in mega-systems that serve to further the exploitation of the earth and generation of profits for unsustainable commercial interests.
Think also of the insulation on all our poorly insulated housing that such sums could give.
Your leader column already mentions solar power, something that complements recent advances in battery technology ("Warming to solar power", The Herald, May 4). We must think in more imaginative terms than those promoted by ScottishPower and it may require government to do this if the industry is unable.
Donald Thomson,
8 West Chapelton Avenue,
Bearsden.
I HAVE always been a bit puzzled as to why a group of wind turbines should be called a wind "farm" - these massive industrial installations are as far from true farming as is possible.
However, if they are to be referred to as farms, a more appropriate name would be subsidy farms, on the basis that they are subsidised when they produce intermittent electricity and again subsidised through constraint payments when they don't generate. They are an excellent investment for developers which generate an income no matter what happens - but are a poor investment for electricity consumers, who pay all these subsidies in their ever increasing bills.
GM Lindsay,
Whinfield Gardens, Kinross.
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