Sir, Magnus Linklater (Commentary, Scottish edition, Apr 1) refers to the storage of wind electricity as a holy grail. Scotland stores energy from her rain. In wet and windy weather existing hydroelectric reservoirs can fill up undrawn while wind turbines supply consumer load via the Grid; when the wind drops demand could be balanced by water turbines brought on line. Any incentive required to finance additional generators would appear more cost and carbon effective than standby gas turbines in the South of England, and wrecking Scotland’s landscape with giant export transmission tower lines to superimpose sporadic export wind output on the loads for which existing lines were built.
Renewable power should be complementary, not supplementary, within the nation’s system. Britain’s electricity system was once a triumph of joined-up thinking.
Sir William Lithgow
Lochgilphead, Argyll