I AM a retired chemical engineering lecturer who previously worked in the nuclear industry and I’ve heard about the hydrogen economy in one form or another since the 1970’s. The source of the hydrogen that will fuel this economy is the electrolysis of water and it’s often proposed that the energy to do this will come from renewables (Letters, March 28).

Scotland does have a great story to tell on renewable electricity and managed to slightly exceed consumption in 2017. However, electricity is only a fraction of the energy consumed in Scotland – around 24,000 GWh in 2016 compared to a total of 142,000 GWh from all sources (including 111,000GWh from gas and petroleum products).

Even assuming a conversion efficiency of 100 per cent (which is impossible) our renewable generation would need to expand six times to provide the energy required for a hydrogen economy.

The only non-carbon source that would provide the energy needed is nuclear fission, and so a hydrogen economy is actually another name for a plutonium economy. Also, if you are going to use energy to make a combustion fuel wouldn’t it be better to just make petrol? There is an infrastructure to handle this and lots of engines to burn it. We can use captured carbon and water for the atoms and put them together with a process similar to that used by the Germans in the Second World War.

Rather than trying to substitute other fuels for fossil fuels it would be better instead to consider our whole pattern of energy generation and consumption. This would almost certainly involve big changes in society and need significant political leadership to come about.

Unfortunately the whole energy debate seems to involve us in collectively sticking our heads in the sand and hoping the problem will go away.

Dr Bruce Postlethwaite,

5 Palmer Crescent, Strathaven.

THE idea that Scotland stands poised to usher in an era of energy security based on hydrogen is fantasy. Chancellor Philip Hammond has announced a future ban on gas boilers for new build homes, just as the gas networks are looking at utilising hydrogen into their supply. Failure to invest in research and technology means Scotland is already lagging behind. We has one of the largest wind sectors in the world with little to show for it in terms of manufacturing jobs. Around £2.8 billion in contracts, amounting to thousands of jobs for the Moray and Kincardine windfarms, have just been awarded and yet the Bifab yards in Fife lie empty.

The result of Scotland’s industrial and environmental policy is that we will now see workers and communities lose out on thousands of jobs while simultaneously watching diesel-powered ships tugging wind farm jackets back from the Middle East. The legacy of years of political incompetence means that fabrication yards in the United Arab Emirates, Belgium and Spain will be booming whilst yards in Scotland lie idle; and there is the carbon footprint created as a result.

The solutions to our energy and climate crisis aren’t simple. We need a sober and honest debate about meeting future energy needs in a way that is affordable. We need a planned strategy for real jobs, in the real world and that plan needs to involve the expertise of workers in the energy sector . A failure to have that discussion and draw up a proper plan will see energy bills continue to soar, while we increasingly import our energy needs from dodgy regimes across the globe and we fund the best health service in the world – in Norway.

Hazel Nolan,

GMB Scotland Organiser for the Gas Industry, Fountain House, Charing Cross, Glasgow.

FASCINATING figures have been released by the UK Government about net Scotland-to-England electricity transfers in 2018. Scotland sent a record high of 23.7TWhs of electricity to England, higher than the UK’s total net imports from Europe.

Transfers from Scotland to England were higher in all quarters in 2018 than in 2017, and Q4 was exceptional at 7TWhs – up 44 per cent on 2017, as the new 2,200 MW western high-voltage direct current link came on line; no danger of Scotland’s lights going out, then. This shows the symbiosis that exists on this island. Independence would not change that. The “easiest trade deal in history” would be a certainty.

GR Weir,

17 Mill Street, Ochiltree.