How SNP is overruling local decisions to force windfarm developments on rural communities

The reception to the news that Center Parcs is hoping to build its first Scottish holiday village just north of Hawick has been overwhelmingly positive, and with the promise of a £400 million investment creating over 1,200 permanent jobs, no wonder.

But on Monday, a very different plan comes before Scottish Borders Council planners, one which will create just 29 jobs in the Borders but will have a big impact in a very different way. This is the Teviot windfarm to the south of the town, with 52 turbines the biggest ever planned in the region which will be seen for miles around and dominate part of the historic Hawick Common Riding route.

The report makes clear the enormous negative impact on the landscape makes little difference when it comes to the Scottish Government’s policies on net zero and climate change, most notably the 2022 onshore wind policy statement, which firmly states the “deployment of onshore wind is mission critical for meeting our climate targets”, and the National Policy Framework 4 (NPF4), which dictates “significant weight” must be given to a development’s contribution to renewable energy and climate change targets.

Officers are therefore recommending no objection, not surprising when two decisions this month show resistance to the Scottish Government’s net-zero agenda is futile.

The Scottish Government's attitude towards new wind farms shows resistance to its net-zero agenda is futile (Picture: Ashley Cooper/Construction Photography/Avalon) | Getty Images

A mockery of the planning system

First, climate action minister Alasdair Allan dismissed the outcome of a local planning inquiry, and over 200 objections, to approve construction of battery storage units and 11 wind turbines at Strath Oykel in Sutherland.

Then ministers snubbed nearly 1,000 objections and overturned another inquiry rejection to grant permission for new pylons and a 27-mile power line through the Galloway Forest Park, making a mockery of the Scottish Government’s proposal to turn the area into a national park.

It also makes a mockery of the entire planning system; taxpayers’ money and hard-pressed planning officers’ time would be saved if every renewable energy project just went straight to SNP minsters for a rubber stamp.

In some ways, the Galloway decision is the more understandable of the two, because lack of investment in grid capacity is a massive problem, best illustrated by the level of constraint payments – money paid to stop generation when the grid can’t cope with the power being produced, with the cost added to our bills.

Paid to stop producing electricity

Around £390m went to Scottish windfarm operators alone last year, but analysts estimate nearly £850m was paid to gas-powered electricity generators too. Constraint payments are expected to hit £1.8 billion this year, and to keep rising. Think about that when your bill goes up 6.4 per cent, thanks to Ofgem raising the energy price cap.

Last year was a record for wind energy, but it still only provided 30 per cent of the total electricity supply. For all the talk of the complete transition to renewables, the gap is so vast it’s hard to see how that can ever be achieved in Scotland, even if every available piece of land was planted with a wind turbine.

NPF4 also insists that lack of grid capacity is no reason to reject wind applications, but the enthusiasm for despoiling the countryside – when the means to transmit the juice is patchy at best, and when the weather can stop generation entirely – just shows the disconnect is with public opinion as well.