I’M afraid that Dr Peter Williams, (HAS, June 10), needs to look at the bigger picture when he complains that the solar generation subsidies are no longer available.

I suspect that most people who wanted domestic solar generation already have it. There have been plenty of companies offering to install panels for free so that the householder gets free power and the companies make their profit from the subsidy.

Buying your own panels using a bank loan then using the saved electricity bill to pay the loan is already economic, especially as one can sell the surplus for about 5p/kWh, so we don’t need subsidies to encourage us.

A big problem for the National Grid is domestic solar generation cannot be switched-off.

We already see wind turbines stopped on sunny weekend days because the country’s electrical load is over-supplied when industry is quiet.

Expensive stand-by plant must be available for when the sun goes in. Being reliant on one source of renewable energy can give us problems.

Dr Williams is also confusing the consumption of gas for its supply.

If we don’t reduce consumption then somebody will supply it.

Local fracked gas may well be cheaper than imports – if it isn’t then he doesn’t need to protest as it won’t happen. If it is cheaper then surely Dr Williams doesn’t want the country to squander foreign exchange to buy what we can get locally? Surely it’s not just a matter of ‘not in my back yard’ is it?

Anthony J Foster, Peterlee