Millionaires in wind farm feud

AS IF on cue, the golden eagle flapped lazily into the air and began to drift on the strengthening breeze from the west. Framed behind the majestic bird was the 2,430ft peak of Carn Na Saobhaidhe in a scene unchanged for centuries.

The Monadhliaths - Scotland’s ‘grey mountains’ - are prime eagle territory on the high ground between Loch Ness and the flood plain of the River Spey. It’s a remote area penetrated by just one minor road and prized by both Britain’s most iconic birds and the wildlife enthusiasts they attract for its solitude and peace far from the noise and bustle of modern life.

But this silent world is now at the centre of an extraordinary battle between two of Britain’s richest landowners, who have very different visions of the future of the mountain range.

Sir Jack Hayward, the Bahamas-based multi-millionaire property dealer, wants to build 36 towering wind turbines on the ridge near Carn Na Saobhaidhe in a deal that will net his 13,000-acre Dunmaglass Estate millions of pounds over the next 25 years.

The turbines, each up to 330ft high, will form Britain’s highest wind farm and will be visible from the shores of Loch Ness and the high points of the Cairngorms to the east. Development company Renewable Energy Systems (RES) is working with Hayward.

But the owner of the neighbouring Coignafearn estate, Sigrid Rausing, the daughter of Tetrapak billionaire Hans Rausing, is a noted ecologist who wants to preserve and increase the golden eagle population.

Rausing, and two other landowners who border Dunmaglass, are among the 1,200 objectors who have already written to the Scottish Executive to oppose the wind farm. The 43-year-old Swede, who bought Coignafearn as a Highland retreat in 1997, is providing the bulk of the funds for what is Scotland’s best-financed anti-wind farm campaign. Thousands of glossy leaflets opposing the project have already been distributed to local farming communities, some of which will benefit financially if the project goes ahead.

The propaganda war is having an effect. Two community councils have voted against the project while a third has yet to decide.

Executive ministers will make a decision later this year. Adding potency to the mix is that the size of Dunmaglass - providing more than 50 megawatts of power - is precisely what the Executive needs if it is ever to meet its targets for supplying Scotland’s electricity from renewable energy.

Rausing, however, is insistent that the wind farm should not be built:

"As a society we get very little out of this development. The people who get most out of it, in terms of pure profit, are Jack Hayward and RES. The sums involved will be very sizeable.

"What I really object to is the way the developers use soft, green language to describe what they are doing when it is really about hard cash. They are hiding behind the whole language of renewable energy, but I feel very strongly that this is just creeping industrialisation of the landscape. There are very few areas left like this in Europe and it will be great pity if we sacrifice a landscape like that for the sake of a political plan."

Rausing has hired Highland environmentalist Roy Dennis, who was awarded the MBE for wildlife conservation, to restore her estate and build up eagle populations in the Monadhliaths.

"This is one of the great wilderness areas of mainland Scotland and people come here precisely because it is the type of wild land that is now so rare," he said. "Eagles hunt all over this area and what is being suggested is that we put a whirling curtain of steel along the highest ridge."

"The developers say they need to site wind farms on high ground, but as there are lots in flat countries like Holland this doesn’t appear to be the case."

Down in the River Findhorn valley, below the wind farm site, the wife of the head gamekeeper on the Coignafearn estate, welcomes the campaign of resistance.

"Most people in the local communities around here do not want the wind farm but feel as if they are being steamrollered into accepting it," said Sophie Dey. "I am very pleased that a wealthy landowner has dipped her hand into her own pocket to help fight the proposal.

"Of course, I am also worried about our livelihood because if people are put off coming to the estate, there will be no gamekeepers. Our twins were the first children to be born on this estate for 50 years. This is regeneration in human terms and all that would be put at risk."

Local residents who object to the wind farm know that they could be rejecting a huge flow of funds into the area. In the village of Farr, seven miles to the north, the community is expecting a bonanza of up to 1m from a recently-approved wind farm.

But community councillors representing the string of villages along the shores of Loch Ness have already submitted objections. Peter Mosley, a church minister in the tiny village of Croachy, said:

"Apart from the fact they are destroying a pristine wilderness, the traffic will have a horrendous effect on the area, which relies on tourism. The money that the developers will offer is nothing but a badly disguised bribe."

Such claims meet with exasperation at the Glasgow headquarters of RES, which has five other wind farms either built or close to approval in Scotland.

"The opponents say this is wild land, but there are no government landscape designations on this area. It is not wilderness and has little biodiversity value," said Ray Hunter, the company’s Scottish wind farms manager.

"It is also not an important area in Scotland in terms of golden eagles, and we do not believe there will be a significant local, regional or national impact on golden eagle populations."

Although RES accepted that the majority of the representations received by the Executive were against the project, the battle for approval will continue. Hunter added: " we research sites very thoroughly and we remain convinced that Dunmaglass is one of the best wind farm sites in the country."