Here is my plan to save us all from extinction at the least cost and most importantly quickly enough.

Firstly, establish huge solar farms in North Africa, USA and the Far East in the deserts and infertile sunny areas. Bear in mind an area the size of Wales devoted to solar panels would supply the total energy requirements of the planet.

Generate a surplus during sunlight hours to desalinate sea water pumped from the nearest ocean and hydrolyse it into hydrogen and oxygen. Also use desalinated water to develop new agriculture and forestation.

Compress and liquefy the hydrogen for tank storage. At night use this to fuel gas turbines to generate electricity for night time use when the sun goes down. As done in Scotland.

Use existing nationally generated solar and windfarm power to desalinate and hydrolyse water to produce hydrogen which can be liquefied and stored to fuel motor vehicles following their conversion to gas power.

Bear in mind, coal gas was used in the last world war to fuel motor vehicles. Gas bags, (not to be confused with your well-meaning correspondents) were attached to cars' roofs. Liquid hydrogen tanks would replace petrol and diesel tanks.

A huge advantage would that we could cheaply and quickly convert vehicles from being hydrocarbon-fuelled to liquid hydrogen power (clean and non-polluting) and avoid to the replacement of vehicles with hugely expensive battery-powered electric vehicles. This overcomes the difficulties already highlighted by Douglas Mills in his "Real electric problems" 16th May.

Mike Joslin

Dorchester