ScottishPower is proposing to develop a windfarm at Green Knowes, on the Eastbow Hill-Sim's Hill ridge north of the main Glen Devon road. The site is one of a number carefully selected in Scotland which the company is seeking to develop for wind power generation as it works towards meeting its obligation to supply an increasing proportion of its portfolio from renewable resources. It will also contribute significantly to Scottish and national targets for renewable energy development aimed at tackling global climate change. ScottishPower looks in general at the imperative for generating an increasing proportion of our energy supplies from renewable resources, and in particular at the role and benefits of onshore wind technology.
The proposed development at Green Knowes is an ideal location for a windfarm. The site is part of an elevated plateau, at an average altitude of over 450m, and as such would be the windiest and therefore most productive site (per megawatt installed) of the various sites proposed in the eastern Ochils. It is free from designations for landscape or ecological reasons, and does not have significant ornithological issues.
Access would most likely be from the south, utilising the network of A-class roads between the M90 and the site. Transport studies are underway to ensure that the turbines can be brought to the site by road. These studies comprise part of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), carried out by independent consultants to evaluate all potential environmental impacts on the proposed development. For windfarms, the potentially most significant environmental impact is on landscape and visual amenity. This will be an important consideration at the proposed Green Knowes site.
The initial scoping layout comprises 46 turbines of up to 1.75MW capacity. These turbines would have a maximum height of approximately 95m. The final layout and turbine numbers, however, will evolve in response to the findings of the EIA process. Early responses have highlighted concerns about the proximity of the turbines on Eastbow Hill and the Seat to the escarpment at Glen Eagles, and it is likely that some of these turbines would be removed or relocated. It is hoped that a windfarm of 50MW would be achievable. The EIA process will progress over the coming months with an application for consent anticipated next year.
Global climate change is widely recognised as being one of the greatest environmental challenges facing the world today. The principal cause is a rise in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, mainly caused by humanity's growing use of fossil fuels to generate energy. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been charged with researching this phenomenon and has stated that it is now unequivocal that global warming is happening, is attributable to man, and is happening faster than previously anticipated.
The UK government has set a domestic goal of reducing CO2 emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by 2010, a first stage to what will be needed in the longer term. Renewable energy sources, an essential element of this climate-change programme, are expected to make a substantial and accelerated contribution.
The Scottish Executive has set a target to increase use of electricity in Scotland from renewable sources to around 18% by 2010, with a further aspirational target of 40% by 2020. These targets recognise Scotland's vast renewable energy resource - including some of the best wind, wave and tidal resources in Europe. Under the Renewables Obligation, the government has also obliged all UK electricity suppliers to provide 5% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2003, rising to 10% by 2010.
Onshore wind power is currently the only economic way to meet these targets in the short term while other renewable technologies such as offshore wind, wave and tidal power "catch up" in terms of viability and cost. Wind power is clean, affordable, abundant and reliable.
Windfarms require good windspeeds, proximity to electrical grid with spare capacity, and road access. Restrictions on siting include National Scenic Areas, Special Protection Areas and MoD low-flying areas. Taken together, these and other protected areas sterilise a large proportion of Scotland's land area for windfarm development. The result is that development is focused within a few areas free of such restrictions and with the necessary technical criteria - and the Ochils is one of these areas.
Scotland has an abundant wind energy resource, greatest in the colder winter months when energy demand is at its highest. Wind, like other renewable resources, is characterised by its more diffuse low-energy intensity and variability when compared with the fossil and nuclear generating plants we are accustomed to at present. But this does not mean it is any less effective or reliable - just different.
Wind power does not produce waste, nor contribute to global warming. Wind turbines do not produce pollution during their operation, and "pay back" the indirect pollution generated during their manufacture, construction and commissioning within months - much faster than fossil fuel or nuclear power. Turbines can be easily decommissioned and removed at the end of their useful life. At a local level, no form of power generation is entirely without impact, but with careful siting and design, local environmental effects of windfarms are minimal compared with their benefits. At Green Knowes, the detailed site-specific environmental impact assessment, together with feedback from local and wider consultation, will guide the optimal layout and design of the windfarm such that any effects are minimised.
Surveys of attitudes to windfarms have been widely documented over a decade and consistently show a clear majority in favour of wind energy. They also show that most nearby residents do not experience any problems and that problems anticipated before construction did not materialise. Early large-scale hydropower projects were also subject to much controversy - but they have, over time, come to be widely accepted. It is expected that the "new" renewables will be accepted, too.
As well as being a cost-effective and pollution-free source of renewable energy, wind power also creates and supports Scottish jobs. Major Scottish companies are involved in manufacturing and development, and there is increasing realisation that substantial jobs are to be had from renewable energy. Examples include the turbine blade manufacturer NOI in Fife, the Vestas-Celtic assembly plant in Campbeltown, the Marine Energy Test Centre in Orkney, and the Arnish fabrication yard on Lewis. Local communities too can benefit from new income, jobs and diversification as a result of windfarm development - many are in areas where even a small number of jobs can be locally significant.
In the long term, Scotland will have to look at further alternative ways of generating electricity as many of its generating plants near the end of their lives. Coal extraction and North Sea gas are in decline, nuclear power is expensive and unpopular, and most viable large-scale hydroelectric schemes have already been developed.
In the short term, onshore wind power development is the most economical and advanced renewables technology and the only viable option if Scotland is to meet its targets. As we progress towards meeting the 40% aspiration, we will see a wider range, balance and scale of renewables technologies and projects.
Without wind power having proved itself as a significant source of renewable energy, it is unlikely that the government would have the confidence it now has to support wave/tidal energy. The alternative would be to recommence the building of power plants - an option left open in the government's energy white paper.