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We will not carpet the UK with windfarms and pylons for clean power, says UK energy tsar

3 Oct 2024

...but seeks to speed up planning consent

The UK government’s head of energy transition has promised not to ‘carpet the UK with windfarms and pylons’, but has ruled out ‘undergrounding’ power lines, due to the high cost involved.


Chris Stark also confirmed the UK government’s commitment to tackling delays in the planning system, in order to roll out the required infrastructure more quickly.


This appears to mirror the approach in Scotland, where revised planning legislation published last year (NPF4) is seen as supporting Section 36 consent for onshore wind farms even in areas where there is likely to be a significant visual impact on the landscape, and in areas of prime agricultural land or peatland.


Meanwhile, communities in areas such as the Scottish Borders, Aberdeenshire and Ayrshire have raised concerns that a proliferation of wind farms and pylon lines would pose a threat to biodiversity and tourism, while also damaging the beauty of the landscape in some of the most scenic areas of the country. It seems clear that Mr Stark has spent very little time in rural Scotland.


Ultimately, the power generated by wind farms is often discarded in the winter due to grid constraints, as the electricity transmission network is currently unable to handle the enormous amount of renewable energy that is generated on windy days, principally in Scotland.


Scotland currently has 15.4 GW of operational capacity for onshore renewable electricity generation, according to data published by the Scottish government as of end-March this year.


There are 790 renewable energy projects with a total estimated capacity of 46.8 GW in the planning and construction pipeline. If all of these projects come to fruition there would be 62.2 GW of capacity.


But Ofgem forecasts that by 2050 Scotland will need only a total of 9.4 GW in the Winter and 7 GW in the Summer.


This clear over-capacity suggests a complete absence of joined-up thinking among politicians and the risk of further alienating rural communities.


The challenge of moving all this wind power from where it is generated (mainly in Scotland) to where it is needed (mainly in England), remains a colossal task. The cost of upgrading the UK's electricity grid is currently estimated at around £58 billion.

Borders Wind Farm Watch is a cross-community initiative which  monitors wind farm development in the Scottish Borders.

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