...and onshore in Scotland

British Energy, Shell and Scottish Power have announced plans to build what is potentially the largest wind farm in the UK, on hills 10 miles south of Glasgow. They intend to invest £150m in the 240MW scheme, comprising 140 turbines, at Whitelee Forest on Eaglesham Moor. The project could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 500,000 tonnes a year, and is supported by Friends of the Earth Scotland as well as by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB, the mass membership organisation associated with Scottish Power’s ‘green’ electricity). However, it is already facing some opposition from local communities concerned at its landscape impacts.

This concern - a potent objection to onshore wind, but one from which offshore schemes are largely free - was part of the reason for the recent abandonment of National Wind Power’s proposed 26- turbine wind farm at Mynydd Hiraethog on Denbigh Moors. The Countryside Council for Wales argued that the development was not appropriate for a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and that the 82-metre high turbines would spoil views from the Snowdonia National Park. By contrast with the latest scheme in Scotland, the Mynydd Hiraethog proposals were also fiercely opposed by the RSPB. Its abandonment, pre-empting a public inquiry called by the Welsh Assembly, came after rare birds were found on the site. -

Oliver Tickell

British Energy, www.british-energy.com
Shell, www.shell.co.uk
Scottish Power, www.scottishpower.plc.uk
RSPB, www.rspb.org.uk

13 September 2001

Oliver Tickell