News Release
Whitelee Wind factory – two steps forward, one back by Iberdrola/Scottish Power
The opening today of Europe’s largest windfarm at Whitelee(1), just south of Glasgow, has come with a warning from Ramblers Scotland about the future direction of Scottish and UK energy policy.
Dave Morris, Director of Ramblers Scotland said: “This is a massive development, involving 140 turbines each over 100 metres tall spread over 55 sq km. We are turning a large area of countryside into a semi-urban, industrialised landscape, with more to come with planning approval already given for further turbines on adjacent ground. Whitelee is better called a wind factory, not a wind farm.”
But Dave Morris recognised that, in this particular case, the scale of the development may be justified:
“Whitelee will undoubtedly make a significant contribution to the development of Scotland’s renewable energy capacity and its location, close to Glasgow, means that it is near to centres of demand and easily integrated into the existing electricity transmission network. Furthermore, we acknowledge that the development will establish a large network of roads between the wind turbines which will be available for outdoor recreation users along with other roads and paths provided by the developers. This, however, is not the priority - we need new paths for walking and cycling to join together our local communities across the country – this is far more important than paths joining together large numbers of giant wind turbines!”
Looking to the future, however, Dave Morris, warned that UK energy policy needs to change dramatically:
“We cannot go on depending on massive land based wind factories to meet our future renewable energy targets. Existing UK energy policy will require an incredible 600 Whitelees to be built by 2050 – that would cover an area of land the size of Wales. Hundreds of giant turbines and their associated electricity transmission lines must not be built on the land of Scotland. We cannot sacrifice the world famous wildness and beauty of Scotland in order to meet the energy demands of southern Britain.
Dave Morris called for a new direction in energy policy:
“It must be made clear to the UK Government that planning approval will be refused by the Scottish Government and local authorities for many more Whitelees. The future for giant turbines lies offshore, with much smaller, community based wind turbine developments forming the basis for onshore development”(2).
“Equally important is the need to dramatically change the Renewables Obligation, the subsidy regime which supports wind turbine establishment. Iberdrola/Scottish Power are not building Whitelee as a charitable venture. They can expect massive profits based on the public funding support provided by the Renewables Obligation. We need the UK Government to change this subsidy so that, on land the primary aim is to support small scale community development, with the main commercial support being redirected towards off shore wind, wave and tidal development with associated subsea transmission cables. The Scottish Government can start that redirection process by refusing planning permission for the proposed Beauly Denny powerline and making clear that most future long distance electricity transmission will be by subsea cables, not through massive overland pylons” (3).
Notes
(1) Scottish Power, part of the Iberdrola Group, has announced the opening of Europe’s largest windfarm at Whitelee on Wednesday 20th May.
(2) For more information on Ramblers Scotland’s energy policy, see
http://www.ramblers.org.uk/scotland/ourwork_scotland/countryside/energy/RA+Scotland+Energy+Policy.htm)
(3) Ramblers Scotland news release 19 March 2009
