SIR — The unexpected 11th hour review into a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point provides us with a huge opportunity.

It gives us the chance to see off this white elephant once and for all and make the giant leap towards a clean, safe, and affordable renewable energy system.

Research has shown that solar power would be a less costly way of generating the equivalent amount of power and even offshore wind is now a better deal for bill-payers than Hinkley. Tidal lagoons and geothermal power also offer significant untapped potential.

Arguments about the sun not always shining and the wind not always blowing are outdated and show a lack of understanding of how energy policy is developing.

Even the boss of National Grid agrees that the concept of baseload is obsolete.

Innovative energy systems are taking us beyond centralised grids and vast and inflexible generating installations such as Hinkley.

By decentralising generating capacity and using smart technology to match supply and demand, combined with efficiency savings, we can usher in a new energy era.

A final decision on Hinkley is expected in just a few weeks, so I would urge readers to write to their local MPs and ask them to call on Theresa May to abandon what would be the most expensive object ever built.

We need a genuine energy revolution; one that can give power back to the people rather than hand it to giant foreign corporations and the Chinese Communist Party.

Molly Scott Cato,

Member of the European Parliament

for the South West and Gibraltar.