News Release
Doubts are being cast over the need for the Public Inquiry into the Beauly to Denny Electricity Transmission Line as The First Minister announces that a study has been commissioned to assess what grid upgrades are required for future renewable energy developments.
Speaking at the Scottish Renewables conference in Glasgow earlier today, the First Minister, Jack McConnell MSP, announced the publishing of new planning guidelines for renewable energy [1]. Among the issues highlighted in his opening speech was the recognition that “a 21st century renewables industry needs to be underpinned by a 21st century grid infrastructure”, and that a far-reaching study has been commissioned to look at how the renewables industry will impact on the electricity grid, and is due to report back this July.
Davie Black, Wildland Campaigner for the Ramblers Association Scotland, commented; “A strategic look at how we connect power in the 21st century is very much welcome, in fact it’s well overdue. But we really must question why we [2] are tied up in a lengthy and costly Public Inquiry for the Beauly-Denny Powerline in advance of this strategic appraisal of grid requirements?”
“There is undoubtedly going to be more offshore or marine renewable technologies in future, so investing in subsea cabling to transport power from the remote north and west to the south where it’s needed would appear to be a sensible option. Evidence has emerged from the Beauly-Denny Inquiry that by fine tuning the existing grid the network could accommodate all the renewable energy proposals in the north of Scotland that are operational, under construction, consented or still mired in the planning system.
The First Minister’s announcement of this grid study should be the signal to halt this wasteful Inquiry and look at solutions that benefit Scotland’s people and landscapes.”
ENDS
[1] The Scottish Renewables conference takes place in Glasgow on the 22nd and 23rd March 2007. The First Minister, Jack McConnell MSP, gave the opening Ministerial Statement. The text referring to the electricity grid is as follows:
ii. Electricity grid
- At the same time, we’ll continue to make a very strong case at a UK level for the electricity grid upgrades that your industry needs.
- Of course, any individual proposal that may come to Ministers will of course be dealt with objectively.
- But a 21st century renewables industry needs to be underpinned by a 21st century grid infrastructure – and, that’s why we will continue our efforts to secure the sub-sea connections, the replacements, and potential new transmission lines that will help us get even more out of renewable energy in Scotland.
- We’ve already commissioned a far-reaching study that will look at how, as the renewables industry develops, it will impact on the electricity grid.
- The study is due to report back this July – and, it will give us the clearest assessment yet of what grid upgrades your industry needs to support it.
[2] The Beauly-Denny Landscape Group is a banner under which the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland, John Muir Trust, Mountaineering Council of Scotland, National Trust for Scotland, Ramblers Association Scotland and the Scottish Wild Land Group are participating in the Public Local Inquiry for the Beauly to Denny powerline proposal.
Evidence will be given on behalf of the Beauly-Denny Landscape Group by: John Mayhew, Head of Policy and Planning, National Trust for Scotland; David Jarman, geomorphologist and former Head of Planning West Lothian Council; Stuart Young, construction consultant; Professor Roger Crofts, environmental and management advisor, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and former CEO of Scottish Natural Heritage; Professor Andrew Bain, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and former professor of economics.
The Beauly-Denny Landscape Group also associate themselves with evidence advanced by Sir Donald Miller, former chairman of the South of Scotland Electricity Board, Derek Birkett, former Transmission Grid System Control Engineer and Paul Driver.
The key points of the evidence will include:
- Adverse impact on the landscape caused by the proposed line;
- Adverse impact on the landscape in areas where additional generating capacity would be installed which is only made possible by this line;
- Failure in the Environmental Statement to establish a need for the proposed line;
- Failure to address in the Environmental Statement the poor economic viability of wind turbines in Northern Scotland in the medium and long term future, in relation to the nature and extent of consumer subsidy and the likely consequences on required transmission capacity; and
- Failure to address in the Environmental Statement reasonable alternatives to the proposed line, including failure to explore a sub-sea cable solution.
The proposed 400kV transmission line is 220 kilometres (km) long from Beauly in the north to Denny in the south. It would use approximately 600 steel lattice towers, mostly between 50 and 56m tall, with some reaching 65m tall. Concrete foundations would be required for each tower, along with around 280km of access track (with small quarries to supply roadstone) and construction compounds to store materials. 6 electricity substations would also be required for this development.
