Energy conservation and renewables are the only possible solution to the world’s energy problems and the need to move as fast as possible to a low-carbon economy (Hinkley Point deal delayed by minsters, 29 July). Sadly, the UK has been rowing in the opposite direction by rigging the market in favour of shale gas. We can only hope that George Osborne’s irrational hostility towards renewables will now be abandoned by the new “green team” of Greg Clark, Jo Johnson and Nick Hurd at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). As a matter of urgency, they need to scrap HS2 and use the money on a European supergrid in order to iron out fluctuations from different sources of renewable energy. We need not only a new green deal, but huge investment in local microgeneration projects. And, if the government insists on going down the nuclear route, it should develop small modular reactors and locate them on ships not land, as shipping contributes 4.5% of carbon emissions world-wide and this is set to increase 30% by 2020.
Robin Russell-Jones
Chair, Help Rescue the Planet
• Greg Clark’s decision to review the Hinkley project looks sensible, since it has become abundantly clear there are many alternatives to produce reliable low-carbon electricity cheaper and earlier. Until its demise, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) ignored reports showing that solar, wind, storage and backup gas can produce the same output as Hinkley Point a decade earlier and at least 25% cheaper, saving consumers £720m a year for 35 years. Decc repeated its (factually wrong) mantra that only nuclear can provide reliable low-carbon electricity power. Waxing lyrical about jobs created falls flat when you realise that only 900 new permanent jobs will be created, each at a cost to consumers of £800,000 per year.