Reader’s Letter: The past may be key to the future of energy supply

Current political events have now brought energy supply to the fore. I suspect the Victorians just used coal because [to them] it seemed relatively efficient and obtainable. Critics of alternative energy systems always point to the lack of solar or wind power availability at crucial periods. Overall though, wave power is hardly ever mentioned despite the fact it’s a power source that is generally as predictable as sin. In that sense, the brief appearance that Michael Portillo made at Pembroke Dock was very interesting. There have been many other visits to wave action schemes over the years. One shown on BBC1 last year, exploited the Archimedes Screw effect within a tube placed at an angle. The Pembroke devices float horizontally [submerged] in the sea-clearly marked I hope! I’m not sure I believe the lack of attention to wave energy and tide tables was just about maintenance issues, as claimed at Pembroke. There have actually been a lot of problems with Wind Farms as well, although the later model Turbines are much improved durable and longer lasting !

During yet another British Energy shortage discussion [on the GB News Channel] last week, one detractor clearly found the turbines ugly but that’s always a predictable comment and just a “white herring” really as it’s a completely subjective issue. During the 1930s, for example, there was a major campaign against electricity pylons and vested interests on both sides! As with many things it’s somewhat naïve to imagine there’s just a single technical issue involved. If you follow the money you find … er “money” eg solar panels heating the barns of Ireland, in summer, to generate Euros. The nineteen seventies TV Series “Survivors” showed the UK population decimated by a virus with just few people left. The only power remaining on the National Grid was coming from Scotland which has [and still has] pumped storage hydro electric power stations which transfer water into a storage lake [hidden higher up in the mountains] during periods of low demand and then release it to generate power [by gravity] when it’s actually needed. Some more of those could be handy! Think also of large scale tidal power stations, the amount of energy potentially available in the Severn Estuary or Cardiff Bay, for example. Of course environmentalists often step in to block such schemes but saving the planet is not exclusive to strident voices.

Most people want a better environment but there has to be a balance somewhere given the world wide population boom. It’s better than centuries of nuclear power station waste I say. Even there, it’s possible to integrate on a small scale perhaps. “Nuclear” submarines don’t run [primarily] on batteries and the power station at Dungeness [now being de-commissioned] has operated alongside a protected Natural History site of Special Scientific Interest for years.

The “ big one” is bridging that narrow area [20 miles] between Ireland and Scotland in the North, like Sweden to Denmark [27 miles] which has extraordinarily powerful currents flowing continuously! It’s possible that turbines could be included in the structure maybe in embankments towards both mainlands. This could create a truly enormous amount of “free” eco-friendly electricity that could benefit [at least] both Islands. One of the standard objections against this [not new] idea is the very deep trench on the Scottish side that was filled with munitions after WW2. Any detonation would perhaps be mitigated by the millions of tons of water above but the lovely Joanna Lumley has come up with possible solution. She visited Windfarms in the North Sea last year that had a similar problem re installing the turbine mounts in the sea bed.

Instead of clearing this with an explosion the company had developed an eco-friendly technique to extract the unwanted material. Who knows whether this ambitious UK/Irish project could be achieved but in terms of getting back to a nation that innovates, builds and “levels off”, instead of washing banknotes for a living it’s surely worth an objective examination. Such a “Grand Design” could be financed by the UK, the EU, both governments on the “Island of Ireland” and anyone else wanting to invest -barring China and Russia of course!

Such a venture would have would have untold social and political benefits as well [as happened in Victorian Times] uniting disadvantaged communities on both sides of the sea at the very least.

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