Windfarm plan is shocking
An enormous wind farm is planned, smack, bang in the middle of the stunning scenery around Loch Gilp. Seventeen, 722ft, birling giants will dwarf everything else in sight.
Built on forested land at Brenfield, adjoining Ardrishaig, these behemoths will cast vast, flickering shadows and low frequency noise around the loch and surrounding areas.
A large grid substation will also be needed, with a huge battery to maintain power whenever there is too little wind. A battery prone to fires difficult to extinguish that could spew toxic fumes over local communities.
By the time it’s commissioned, there won’t be much forest left.
A quick scan of Argyll and Bute Council (A&BC) wind farm planning criteria suggests there would be substantial issues with this proposal. However, being over 50MW capacity, the Scottish Government will decide. Argyll and Bute Council can object but have no power to block.
As a retired power station engineer with 12 years in renewable energy, I am shocked. This development is completely inappropriate.
The point that Scotland’s beautiful, wild lands are finite is well made. There are many ways to cut CO2 emissions, at lower cost, without disfiguring the landscape with wind farms and hundreds of miles of transmission lines.
Yet, here we are in our “Through the Looking Glass” world in which London-based investors and landowners can pitch up in Scotland, profiting from Westminster Tories’ climate policy; a ‘fat cats charter’ that transfers wealth from the poorest to the very rich via subsidies and soaring energy prices.
John Tulloch, Ardrishaig.
At last Renewables might pay off for Highlanders
Renewables have long been hailed as the saviour of the Highland economy, with one SNP Minister declaring that Scotland would become the Saudi Arabia of renewables.
This has looked unlikely, with the turbines being made in Denmark, Germany or USA and windfarms often being owned by offshore Infrastructure Funds and utilities.
In 2014 The Scottish Government gave ‘guidance’ that 5 per cent plus inflationary increases should be paid to communities – the majority of wind farm developers have paid some if not the 5 per cent. A plethora of wind farms have sprouted with more to come. Windfarms and their transmission lines needed to take the electricity from rural Scotland to the cities where it is needed are controversial.
A major swelling of rebellion against the industrialisation has swung the mood. Highland Councillors, perhaps sensing this at a November planning committee meeting voted against transmission lines having been supportive of them at a previous meeting in the spring.
SSEN had indicated that there would be substantial community benefit from transmission lines, but wouldn’t commit how much until the planning process had successfully concluded. This is rather like accepting an offer when selling your house without knowing how much for.
Local anti groups and Highland councillors can agitate but the Scottish Government has the last say on whether to allow turbines and transmission lines to go ahead regardless of public will.
In the Autumn Statement, there was an announcement that changed the game. The offer for communities as regards transmission lines has now got interesting. A lot needs to be done to firm up the details but the headline figures are a one-off community compensation of £200,000 per kilometer of line and £200,000 per substation, plus £1,000 per year off energy bills for houses near a pylon. SSEN also plan to build houses for the workforce building the line and pass them over to the community when the work is complete.
A year ago I had a Motion at the Highland Council passed calling for 5 per cent of revenue from new renewable energy projects to be paid as community benefits, a multiple of what is currently paid. I went to meet the Secretary of State for Scotland Alister Jack in London and asked him that if Jamie Stone, the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross added an amendment to the Energy Bill going through Parliament legislating that 5 per cent, would the Conservatives support it.
That amendment has remained on the bill so far. Energy policy is reserved to Westminster, planning is devolved to Holyrood.
Not widely known beyond Lochaber is the exploratory work being conducted by SSE to build one of the biggest engineering projects in the Highlands, the Coire Glas £1.5 billion pound 1500 Megawatt pump storage power station, that could power three million houses, between Spean Bridge and Invergarry.
The autumn statement didn’t refer to the 5 per cent of revenue from wind turbines and pump storage, but I am optimistic that this will come. The net result could be large regional funds that could make a real difference to the financial wellbeing of the Highlands.
I am not making a case for or against the transmission lines, turbines etc, I have been fighting to make sure than there will be a really substantial financial incentive for Highlanders if they do go ahead. The decision should be made by those who are impacted. Until now these projects were likely to go ahead with crumbs for affected communities, at least we now have something serious to consider.
Angus MacDonald, Highland Councillor and Liberal Democrat Westminster candidate.
A question of parentage
While Iain Thornber’s amusing article “I am Caesar, the King’s dog” muses as to whether the fox terrier came from Mull, and indeed his mother may have, it would appear his father came from Nottinghamshire.
Evidence comes from CW Stamper who was the mechanic to King Edward VII in the early days of motoring. In his book, What I Know, Mr Stamper records in 1908, “…A day or two later His Majesty motored to Welbeck Abbey. We left a note at Clumber House on our way, to say that His Majesty would come on there from Welbeck and would like some tea.
“Accordingly, after walking through the gardens at Welbeck, he returned to Clumber. There I was shown Caesar’s father. His Majesty came to see him while I was there, and Caesar with him. So far from displaying any pious attention for the old dog, his unnatural son gave vent to a series of furious and seemingly derisive barks, to which his sire was only prevented from replying by a sudden attack of the asthma, to which in his old age he had become accustomed…”.
Richard Schuster, Dalmally.