It is very likely that this country will suffer power cuts over the coming decade.

The proposed shutdown of the coal-fired electricity plants because of current government “green” policies is short-sighted and, hopefully, not actually necessary.

A new mantra might be: Let’s put the greenhouse gas (CO2) where it belongs, in greenhouses.

Surely, it is not beyond the wit of engineers’ ingenuity to both use the vast resource of heat which currently goes up chimneys to heat vast glasshouse complexes and, additionally, use the vegetation inside the glasshouses to “capture” the carbon dioxide.

Admittedly, such glasshouse complexes would, of necessity, be vast but such investment would revolutionise British market gardening.

Kew Gardens, at the time of Charles Darwin, grew bananas in their greenhouses and have recently been using small experiments on growing precious plants more rapidly in atmospheres of enhanced carbon dioxide levels.

It seems that market gardening could grow whatever in large greenhouse complexes and, hopefully, mop up much, or most, of the current pollutant which has been blamed for global warming and continue to generate electricity in the most dependable and cheapest way.

N F Gardner, Carlisle Avenue, Swindon.