15 Aug 2025
In the first half of this year Scottish wind farms were paid not to produce nearly 40% of the electricity they could have generated.
According to research by energy analytics firm Montel, wind farms in northern Scotland curtailed four terawatt hours of potential output between January and June – enough to power every home in Scotland for six months.
Although there was enough wind to generate power, it couldn’t be used locally and the grid lacked capacity to supply demand elsewhere.
Grid capacity is a constant problem because the plentiful wind resources in north Scotland are too far from main population centres, and the rapid proliferation of turbines in the Scottish Borders also produce more energy than the network can handle.
With limited cable capacity to transmit excess electricity, the National Energy System Operator (Neso) is forced to step in.
Neso pays wind farms to switch off, while often paying gas plants elsewhere in Britain to ramp up production to meet demand, particularly in the big conurbations of England. The costs for this “balancing act” are ultimately added to all consumers’ energy bills, and in the first half of 2025 consumers paid £152 million for the lost output.
Wind curtailment isn’t new, but it’s getting worse. Curtailment volumes rose 15% compared to the same period last year.
Industry experts point to decades of underinvestment in Britain’s electricity grid. Large pylons and new transmission lines could help move renewable power to where it’s needed, but proposals for new infrastructure in rural Scotland have met local resistance.
These concerns are shared by communities in both the north and the Borders, who point to inefficiencies in Britain’s rapidly evolving electricity system and their knock-on effect on consumers’ energy bills.
Fintan Devenney, senior analyst at Montel, says the trend will likely continue unless government and industry work together on solutions. The UK government says it is delivering the biggest electricity network upgrade in decades, aiming to cut costs and prepare for a fully clean power system by 2030.
Scotland’s energy secretary Gillian Martin says the current UK energy system is “not fit for purpose” and needs significant investment to make full use of Scotland’s renewable resources.
As Britain accelerates its shift to renewables, the challenge isn’t just generating clean power, but building the infrastructure to transmit power to where it’s needed without untold environmental damage.
The solution is clean energy production closer to population centres, and the Scottish Government’s continued rejection of nuclear energy is making that more difficult. Without a new approach more wind could mean more waste, more wrecked countryside – and higher bills.