SIR – Graham Hoyle (Letters, December 23) quite rightly points out that wind turbines don’t work when the wind is too light or absent, and this can happen under high pressure conditions in winter and summer. Similarly, solar panels don’t work at night.

However, some wind does blow for around 90 per cent of the year and wind turbines certainly have a role to play in the energy mix, either on land or at sea.

They have the real advantage of not producing CO2.

Similarly, in due course tidal and wave energy could provide a proportion of the electricity in a very reliable manner. The base load supporting renewable technologies will need to be a new generation of nuclear power stations that replace all coal- and gas-fired stations if we are to succeed in reducing the amount of CO2 released to the atmosphere.

Keith Thomson, Heights Lane, Bradford