27 Jan 2026
Scotland’s rush toward wind power has reached a critical crossroads. Instead of delivering cheaper energy and a cleaner grid, evidence shows that much of the country’s wind output cannot be used, exported or stored – and must instead be switched off at public expense.
While new projects continue to be approved at pace, the infrastructure required to move and store the electricity isn’t there, leaving consumers to pay for waste. Rural communities, like many in the Scottish Borders, are bearing the burden.
Analysts at Montel have found that in 2025 over 10TWh of the UK’s wind power was forced offline because the grid could not take it – enough to power every home in Scotland for a year.
Their report showed that wind farms in Scotland were responsible for the vast majority of Britain’s curtailment, costing consumers £343m. Nationwide constraint payments reached £1.4bn, with enough lost energy to power every home in London for a year. According to the data, only 61% of northern Scottish wind output made it to the grid, while the remaining 39% was paid not to produce – a cost added directly to bills.
Analysts said that wind farms in Scotland were largely to blame. Montel’s report states: “The amount of renewable electricity curtailed in Great Britain in 2025 (10TWh) could have met the combined electricity demand of every domestic household in London for the entire year.
“Northern Scotland has seen the most curtailment by far. Over 8.8TWh of wind power in northern Scotland was switched off, enough to also power all Scottish domestic electricity demand for the year.”
Report author Fintan Devenney warned: “The rollout of wind projects in Scotland is not currently expected to slow down. In the Scotwind leasing rounds in 2022, 20 offshore wind projects acquired seabed rights in Scottish waters.
“Should all these projects be completed, almost 30GW of additional wind generation capacity would be added to the Scottish grid, increasing total Scottish wind generation capacity more than threefold. If local flexibility and grid buildout were to remain at current levels, curtailment volumes and costs could rise by a similar order of magnitude.
"Ensuring that renewables can be deployed effectively is therefore key as government looks to balance decarbonisation goals against consumer costs and security of supply. Unless policymakers pay attention to the need to marry renewable power with public systems and infrastructure, then an outdated transmission network could continue to drive up consumer bills as NESO is forced to operate a network potentially unfit to accommodate the government’s 2030 clean power goals.”
To keep the system balanced, grid operators must often fire up gas plants to replace curtailed wind, adding both expense and emissions. This undermines the political narrative that Scotland’s expanding turbine fleet equals cheaper, cleaner energy.
In the Scottish Borders, communities are already seeing the consequences. The region hosts large numbers of turbines with many more in the planning system, yet the grid routing south is saturated, meaning much of the generated electricity cannot reach demand. Rural landscapes risk becoming industrial energy zones, while communities gain little in return.
The Scottish Government has argued that Scotland is a renewable “powerhouse” being held back by the UK, but the data shows that overbuilding the power generation, without first upgrading the grid, forces consumers to pay for waste.
These findings strengthen calls for a moratorium on further renewables infrastructure in the Borders and other over-concentrated regions such as the Highlands and North East, at least until grid capacity, storage, planning and spatial fairness catch up. Without a pause, rural communities risk becoming a permanent energy sacrifice zone for power that cannot be used and bills that continue to rise.