I REFER to the defeatist letter from David Norman in the Review entitled 'Creating power' in which he implies that an electricity supply system involving solar panels in our roofs can never provide sufficient power for all our needs, and to say that it could is nonsense. I never said it could. I said that this is what it will do when the system is perfected, and that it was high time our scientists, whom Mr Sankey referred to as the "brains of government" started working on it.

When the system is perfected, it will have advantages over all other forms of energy. Apart from installation, repair and maintenance costs, it will be free. We will be rid of transmission lines. We will not have to put with pylons stretching all over the countryside; nor will we have power cuts caused by heavy snow, high winds, or trees growing too near power cables. We will be rid of utility bills.?We will not require meters in our homes measuring the electricity we use; nor will we have utility companies charging us for it.

Tidal and wave power may well be ideal for homes near the coast, provided they do not adversly affect marine life. Hydro-electric schemese are find if the waterfall is in your back garden.?Wind farms are not only useless on a calm day, they may present a danger to birds, and their presence amidst the countryside means planning permission would be that much easier to obtain for other developments which would completely ruin the countryside. Coal is subject to excessive carbon emissions. Nuclear power is downright dangerous and only a lunatic government would permit it. In addition to nuclear explosions, they also cause radioactive waste which remains radioactive for centuries. To make matters worse nobody knows what to do with it. So they bury it and try to forget it. What they should do is dump it on some other planet, but the cost of so doing would be prohibitive. Nuclear power is for nuclear bombs, not power stations.

As for solar power, someone in Switzerland has managed to get an aircraft flying on it. This is very much in its infancy, and it only managed 40 miles an hour. But at least it's a start. So don't be so defeatist, Mr Norman, instead start looking forward to the day when solar power, which is so obviously the ideal choice, has been perfected and we are all benefiting from it.

– Anthony Reeve, Oak Way, Littledean.