John Watson, of Orcheton Quay, Modbury, writes:

Are we living in fantasyland on energy?

A recent visitor to Germany describes the drammatic differences between official German government policy on energy and that of the UK.

The German government seeks to cut electricity consumption by 25 per cent by 2050.

The UK government states that 'by 2050 electricity demand is set to double as we shift more transport and heating on to the grid. Germany assumes a population decline of 10 per cent by 2050. UK expects a growth of 25 per cent.

Germany sees electricity use per head as 25 per cent less through efficiency measures. UK sees a massive growth to 65 per cent a head. In Germany over 50 per cent of wind and solar is in communal ownership, compared to three per cent in UK.

We are importing 50 per cent of our food now and by 2020 will be importing 60 per cent of our energy, competing for both in a global market.

Payment will have to come from our declining exports and balance of trade.

Creating money by quantitative easing will not serve.

I wonder how those so vociferously opposing renewable energy measures will react when the lights start to go out and fossil fuel prices double again as they have in the last decade.