WE have had some interesting articles relating to the large land areas being covered with solar panels and wind farms to provide a source of energy.

Residents are getting angry because their views of the countryside and coast are being ruined by the building of these energy farms. Basically they don’t want them in their back yards, but they expect the power supplies to be there when they switch on the lights or the heating.

The use of electricity for the home and industry is only just over a 100 years old. This energy in the early days was provided by coal-fired power stations, which could cope with the demand required. Today we still have some coal-fired stations but these are being replaced by oil and gas and nuclear power.

As many of these power stations omit large quantities of Co2 and other obnoxious gases into the atmosphere, governments are trying to turn to more environmentally friendly alternatives to provide the energy we need in this modern age. The trouble is nearly everything is powered by electricity and the world is struggling to cope with demand.

We would have to have forests of solar panels and the whole coast of the British Isles covered with wind farms to try and keep up with the supplies needed.

Gas, oil, coal and fresh water are diminishing resources and unless we wake up to this problem it will become too late.

We already import a vast amount of gas and electricity, so what will happen when our suppliers become short themselves?

Our suppliers also can hold this country to ransom and dictate the prices.

What ever we do time is not on our side and with the climate changing we may find ourselves using more and more of these precious resources.

Nuclear power might be the only choice left even though it carries a very high risk or we try and build huge hydropower plants. Whatever choice is made in the near future there will be many unhappy residents.

Ruth and Andre Semple of Maybush, Southampton.