Waterways in National Park will create power to ward off wind farms
Picture: Neil Hanna
IT IS a world famous region that attracts thousands of tourists to the banks of its picturesque lochs and rushing burns.
Now bosses of the national park that surrounds Loch Lomond want to turn the area into a renewable energy powerhouse. Dozens of hydro power schemes are to be built in the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park over the next five years as park officials make the most of their “liquid assets”.
They believe that harnessing the power of the park’s many rivers and burns will help Scotland meet its green energy targets while avoiding or restricting the construction of unsightly wind farms in the vicinity.
Gordon Watson, the director of planning and rural development for the Park Authority, said: “If there is something that Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National park is not short of, it’s water. With over 22 large lochs, and 50 rivers or large burns there’s a lot of the wet stuff. This is a key part of the rich recreation experience of the Park but it is also an under-realised economic and renewable energy resource.”
Referring to the recently approved plans for the Cononish gold mine near Tyndrum in the national park, he added: “There may be gold in the hills, but the park’s future prosperity will also come from its liquid assets.”
Maps drawn up as part of draft planning guidance show hundreds of sites within the park with potential for development of small-scale hydro schemes. These usually involve building a small dam across a waterway and installing a turbine beneath the surface to drive a generator.
Watson said: “We have sought to explore how best to contribute to renewables targets without detracting from highly valued landscapes, which also form the basis of the significant tourism economy of the area.”
He added: “Undoubtedly wind farms are very difficult to reconcile with protecting the scenic qualities of the park.”
The authority has used mapping software to guide developers to river sites with a steep enough gradient to generate more than 50kW of power. Altogether, there is believed to be potential to generate 73 megawatts of electricity from hydro schemes, with about 30 megawatts likely to be built within the next five years. Four schemes are complete, another two are being built and 16 are in the application process.
Most of the large estates in the park are pursuing schemes as extra income sources.
However, Watson said it is crucial the construction process keeps disruption to a minimum. One project currently under construction in Glen Falloch, Crianlarich, involves pipelines that cross the West Highland Way three times and temporary diversions have had to be agreed.
Scotland already has a well-developed hydro-power infrastructure of 1,400 megawatts although many schemes were installed in the 1950s. The potential for further development has been eclipsed in recent decades by the rush to build wind turbines although developers are facing increasing difficulties in gaining permission.
One of the factors prompting Loch Lomond park officials to make their views clear is the number of applications for wind farms circling the park. They include the Ard Ghaoth development by Banks Renewables, which if given permission would be built north-east of the village of Drymen. Others in the pipeline include Lomond Energy’s plans to build 10 turbines south-west of the loch at Merkins Farm at Bonhill, close to Dumbarton.
Wind farms have already been built in the Carron Valley as well as Airtricity’s 36-turbine Braes of Doune site near Stirling.
“It’s a worry,” Watson said. “If you are sitting in a boat on Loch Lomond with turbines on the horizon in every direction then what impact will that have on people’s wish to come?”
Wind farm developers believe the park’s stance is misguided. Colin Anderson, director of Banks Renewables, said much of the land outside the national park was “a developed landscape” in the form of farmland. “They are taking a principled stance against wind farms but I don’t think it helps their credibility.”
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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Comments
There are 15 comments to this article
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norfolkboy14
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 11:29 PMAre you disillusioned by rising electricity prices, over dependence on the "green" dream [especially uneconomical and inefficient wind farms] and the destruction of our countryside then please register your concern on http:epetitions.direct.gov.ukpetitions22958 or google "wind petition Norfolk" and follow the link.
Ron Greer
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 10:49 PMYour humour is appreciated and of course if the multiple aims of our so called national parks can be accomodated within the national park boundaries then why not 1 millimetre outside? A terriitorial boundary should delineate differences in ownership and or management. Right now the ownership and management in and adjacent to the so called national park is by and large the same and therefor there is no need for a boundary. Our national parks are not owned by the nation state and are thus not national parks in the sense the vast majority of other countries know. When I explain the tenure status of Scottish national parks to my colleagues in North America and Fennoscandia, they burst out laughing in disbelief.
Libra Personified
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 07:47 PM12, Ron Greer. Scotland is a national park. I'm sure you are comfortable with that.
Ron Greer
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 06:54 PM#9 Imagine, all those National Parks like Yosemite, Denali, Yellowstone, Bannff, Borgefjell and Padjulanta having natural rivers without 40 tonne machines in them. These people obviously don't know how to run things and even allow National Parks to be actrually owned by the nation. They should come to Scotland and see how to do it right.
Libra Personified
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 06:16 PMmini this and that i the way forward. It's even natural in water courses. Mini wind turbines installed in city sewer sytsems would be a bigger help.
Willie Boy
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 03:14 PMCareful maximisation of sources of hydro power is a good thing, long overdue, but quite frankly the bloated quango that is the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority is not the body suited to manage this. Corrupted in their dealings, incompetent in their duties, they are a public funded disgrace.
samcoldstream
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 02:18 PMHeadline in 26th August, 2011, edition of The Telegraph: "Windsor Castle Electricity To Be Supplied By River Thames Turbines." "The Castle will be supplied with electricity by two giant turbines which will be lifted into place at Romney Weir on the nearby river later this month. The 40 tonnes Archimedes Screw turbines will be ready to operate in November." A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman stated: "I can confirm that the Royal Household now has an agreement in place to purchase the energy generated by the hydro scheme." (Source: The Daily Telegraph)
nabodican
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 12:41 PMAnything that helps stop windfarms must be a good thing.
Ron Greer
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 11:49 AM1 Should they do the same thing in Yosemite, Denali and Yellowstone?
Ron Greer
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 11:48 AM3 take a look at the River Garry north of Calvine adjacent to the A9 and railway. Wonder what happened to the 15,000 year old salmon run after Loch Garry was dammed?
Ron Greer
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 11:42 AMNeither hydro,( pump storage and standard) or wind offer dependable predictable electricity in strategically viable volumes. Hydro damming can cause fundamental and profound changes to the ecology of lochs and rivers, not only in the more obvious impacts on important migrratory species such as salmon and seatrout, but also to the production of invertebrate food fauna for fish and birds in large lochs. There can also be profound impacts on the balance of existing fish species biodiversity and interwatershed transfer of different genotypes of native species and alien species. Just the thing we need in a national park?
Slioch.
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 10:43 AMHere, for example, is the river flow data for the Luss Water, which flows into Loch Lomond on its west bank: .............................. http:\\www.ceh.ac.uk\data\nrfa\data\time_series.html?85004 (replace backward slashes with forward). Although I am not very familiar with this data, and it should be noted that the vertical scale is logarithmic, it does not appear to support the view that lack of summer rainfall is problematic. It is also the case that demand for electricity is at a minimum in the summer months.
gus1940
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 09:36 AMWhat a load of c-ap. So it never rains in summer and all the water courses dry up and there is no water to flow thru the turbines. I've seen pictures of dried up riverbeds in England but never in Scotland.
Greenheatman
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 09:05 AMSadly, Scotland is probably one of the worst countries in Europe for establishing hydro electric schemes - this was true in the 50s and it even worse now with climate change affecting precipitation adversely. We have no glaciers to provide summer icemelt so hydro schemes shut down almost completely during June July and August because generation relies solely on rainfall - no rain no power. Also, during the Spring thaw we have too much water all at the same time and this surplus water simply 'goes over the top' of dams and makes its way to the sea. Hydro is Scotland only delivers electricity for around 20% of a typical year and cannot be relied on for anything more than artificially boosting Scotland's so called 'renewable energy exports' Large hydro was never considered to be 'renewable' in the past but it is now! Take out hydro from these figures and you will see that Scotland is nowhere near its target of generating pretty worthless electricity in terms of intermittent MWh
gus1940
Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 08:40 AMEvery single water course in Scotland should be studied to establish the potential for hydro power generation from the largest to the smallest.
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