PAUL Malloy’s powerful letter, “Let’s give power to the people, not more cash to the energy giants” (February 12), prompts me to identify what I believe, to be a clear way forward for our soon-to-be independent Scotland, to smooth the very patchy power playing field we’re currently forced to be part of.
Almost all of Scotland lies above a latitude of 55°. There are significant costs to that. For a start, the foods we eat reflect the energy we have to use to stay warm. Winters in Scotland have an average low of around 0°C, with summer maximum temperatures averaging 15-17°C.
England, on average, is at least 3° warmer that that and more often that not, it is a lot higher than that. It doesn’t sound much but it is significant, especially in sunny Westminster with its natural hot air!
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A Scottish winter requires the lights and heating to go on at around four o’clock in the afternoon and in the morning not get turned off ‘til gone nine as we have very short days then.
Now, Scotland produces more electricity than it uses. A large amount is green, a lot more could be green, in fact a lot more WILL be green. Basically, the price of electricity across the UcK (United conservative Kingdom) is a reserved matter.
It is not widely known or understood that we pay England to be allowed to sell our electricity to them, so the costs we have here are much higher than they need be, or will be, in a “cost-plus” nationalised supply system likely to exist after indy, run for the nation and not for the rich.
Indy Scotland could choose to stop supplying England, but it’s a strong market, so it’s to our benefit to continue to sell to them, BUT at our price, not theirs.
I am sure we will increase our green production and invest more in that pursuit. Wind, wave, tidal and other flow systems can and will be introduced.
This enables a new understanding of how powerful our place in the reduction of carbon dioxide can be.
It would make sense if all domestic and commercial heating, using fossil fuels, could be replaced by electrical systems, and it would be be cheaper to run, cheaper to install too as 99% of the infrastructure is already there.
The programme would be to convert ALL domestic heating in Scotland to nationalised electricity. It would use, by intent, less than 100% of our production.
We need surplus to sell of course, but there is another initiative that Scotland could lead the world in. Mass production of hydrogen!
All petrol cars could be converted to run on hydrogen quite cheaply. Experiments in the USA have shown that it is not too expensive to convert diesels to run on hydrogen. Compare the costs for, say, a bus. A new electric bus costs north of £300,000. Converting an existing diesel bus to run on hydrogen is likely to cost less than £1000 per vehicle. (The American experiments achieved conversions at around $300.)
Buses, although important, pale into insignificance when compared with the haulage industry. There are around 32,000 buses in the UcK but there are more haulage companies than that, and even if they only had one lorry each, there would be a significant saving to be had, but there are more than half a million HGVs for a start. How many white vans and taxis are there, let alone private diesel cars?
Two distinct technologies can develop here in Scotland. The first, cheap hydrogen production, distribution and storage systems using wind and tidal energy when it’s not needed for the grid. The second, diesel and petrol vehicle conversion to hydrogen kits. This has worldwide implications and markets.
If the ideas attract you, then be fully aware that Scotland CANNOT embark upon these projects until it is free of London’s Victorian thinking, free of London’s control and price fixing.
Remember this in May, for there is only one party that can make this happen, if they’re not too busy that is!
Christopher Bruce
Taynuilt
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