Much has been said about the forest of wind farms, fracking and solar panels covering acres of productive land in the Fens and elsewhere.

One thing seems to escape attention, the power of the sea harnessed to generate electricity through constant incoming and outgoing tidal surge.

In the Fens there are five tidal rivers capable of producing energy. Any could serve a large area of East Anglia and the East Midlands.

The vast costs of using inconsistency of wind farms for productive return of minimal quantity, demanding huge subsidies from the pockets of consumers compares unfavourably with conventional methods of producing power.

The sea surrounds us. Why not use it?

Other countries have experimented with hydroelectric power plants involving the sea and mountain waterfalls. As things stand someone has merely to turn off the tap to prevent gas being supplied by foreign companies and we are in deep trouble.

By using tidal surge at outfalls and along rivers shipping could be unaffected by making feeder channels to energise riverside generating stations.

This would probably be a lot cheaper than letting other countries such as China invest in the building of vastly superior nuclear energy plants in Britain. It is high time we got our priorities right and resurrect our former famed ability to do our own thing. I fear that much of the problem rests with politics, as usual.

TREVOR BEVIS

St Peters Road, March