A high price to pay for greener electricity

TODAY the Scottish government will give the go-ahead to the controversial Beauly-Denny power line. It is the most contentious energy project undertaken in Scotland and one that has aroused ferocious opposition. The go-ahead follows the longest and most expensive planning inquiry held in Scotland.

The approval is subject to various conditions but it is unlikely that they will appease many of the 18,000 objectors. For this is an issue that is much more than a row over a power line and pylons. It goes to the heart of what we value as a nation. We may wish to be the most progressive country on climate change. We may aspire to be a world leader on renewable energy. But do we value these to the detriment of our landscape and natural heritage, those features we have treasured for centuries as being distinctive and unique to Scotland? This is an issue critical not only to the values of those who live in Scotland but to the appeal of Scotland to millions worldwide.

The need for an energy transmission line carrying wind-farm energy from north to south is not in dispute. The Scottish Government’s ambitious targets for renewable energy dictate that such a line has to be substantial. Ministers have decreed that half the nation’s electricity should come from renewable sources. And they have further decreed that by 2020 our carbon emissions should be cut by 42 per cent. That is the most ambitious target set by any country.

These commitments, however, come with costs that have been less well trumpeted – higher bills for consumers and, in this instance especially, massive environmental intrusion. How ironic that many environmentalists find themselves in favour of an energy project that many would regard as the biggest landscape spoliation ever proposed across the most scenic areas of Scotland.

The 350 million line, from Beauly in Invernesshire to Denny in Stirlingshire, will stretch for 137 miles, cutting through the Highlands and some of the most beautiful and unspoilt landscape in the whole of Europe – permanently affecting our view of the Great Glen, the Cairngorms National Park, the rugged wildness of Schiehallion in Perthshire and the best of Stirlingshire. Never has one industrial project threatened so many of our landscape icons.

It is not so much the length of line that has concerned protesters. It is the colossal size of the pylons that the power companies have proposed. They seek to build 600 pylons, each up to 217ft (66m) tall, along the route. Some of these will be avoided by conditions obliging the power companies to run the cable underground in some areas. The problem here is twofold. The first is that the cost could have a major impact on the cost of wind power and the bills consumers will ultimately have to pay. The second is that advances in technology could overtake this project. Alternatives do exist. One is a subsea cable. Another is reinforcement of the existing east coast route, which would not need much upgrading. Neither was given serious consideration. That, we believe, was a serious error. For that reason alone, today’s announcement merits the most critical scrutiny.