Power for the people (continued)

Red House Hotel, Coupar Angus

It was time to choose our third course and comment on our second. Keith said his beef stir-fry had been a very tasty mixture of tender beef and a variety of vegetables. My chicken curry was deliciously creamy and full of flavour without being over-spiced and my scribe described the salmon as very moist, just the right texture with the sauce an ideal accompaniment. We ordered our desserts. Keith chose a steamed syrup pudding with custard. I couldn't resist the offer of freshly made mandarin cheesecake and my scribe chose the cheese platter with fresh fruit.

Setting the nuclear question aside, let's consider the other natural sources of renewable energy - wave power, open sea wind power.

Let's take offshore wind for a start. Fine. There's plenty of it and harnessing wave and tidal power are also options to consider. There's a lot of development work going on on that. Scotland has the potential to be a world leader in these. Tidal power, in particular, has the advantage of being predictable. And we mustn't forget the other renewables such as biomass and hydrogen sources.

But the important factor in all of these considerations is "transporting" the generated power. If we harness wave power, tidal power and offshore wind power we have to consider the economies of taking this power to the centres of population. Do we cover our shores and countryside thickly with cables to bring this energy to the population or do we re-deploy people to be closer to the sources of energy?

Maybe the best option, then, is solar power. It's maybe the one system that home-owners can buy into even now.

With solar power you have to consider two categories - to create heat or to convert into electricity. Even grey light is enough to convert solar power into heat and electricity but one has to be able to get sufficient intensity to maintain a constant electricity supply. Solar thermal is cost efficient and there are grants available for people to do this if they have the appropriately facing roofs and walls.

But the key thing I'd like to stress is that there is no single answer to replacing present major power sources. The problem is so great there can be no simple, single answer.

Let's put into perspective what we need. Cockenzie Power Station will come to the end of its projected life in 9 years time. If you wanted to replace the power from this one station you'd need to put 3 million micro-wind turbines on our rooftops - and there's nothing like that number of rooftops in Scotland. So we have to realise that there has to be a whole mixture of responses to these problems. We have to begin to think that our power problems will not be solved by this OR that but by this AND that. We have to look seriously at local power generation and ask ourselves some very difficult questions.

And to change the subject completely, there's a question I can easily answer - that steamed syrup pudding and custard was superb! It was the one thing I loved at school meals and I've carried that on into adult life!

I was equally glad I'd chosen the light and very toothsome cheesecake and my scribe waxed lyrical on the cheese selection. We all agreed the menu at the Red House Hotel had offered us a wide choice of honest and well-cooked food and we'd gladly have spent the rest of the afternoon chatting in the comfortable conservatory restaurant. But it was time to go - Keith to his car to take part in a telephone conference as part of the current Energy Review, and thence to Perth for a choir rehearsal. I had to get back to Perth to sort out a sign for a client.

My scribe, however, was heading off for a large supermarket to complain about the waste of world resources involved in their sale of individually shrink-wrapped peppers.