In 2002, the bill for renewables in the UK was £278million, which had risen, by 2011, to more than £1billion. There is an estimate of £120billion as a final bill for wind turbines and back-up when, for an installation cost of only £13billion, the entire electrical wind supply could be met by gas.

Gas is not only still plentiful, but reliable and cheap and ties in with the latest six-hectare gas storage plant currently being built in the UK.

With the latest wind analysis report indicating that only 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the theoretical wind capacity can be harnessed by wind turbines then when coupled with its intermittent nature, I cannot see how it can be the energy of first choice.

With wind 10 times more expensive to install than gas and since gas produces only 117 pounds of CO2 per million Btu compared to coals 228 lbs, then the UK’s entire CO2 emission savings target can be achieved just by switching the daily 15 Giga Watts of coal supply over to gas making the current drive for offshore wind a total waste to time, effort and money.

Douglas Mills, Fraser Road, Poole