RSPB urged to abandon opposition to wind farm.

Developer urges RSPB to back off and allow array to go ahead as consented

The company behind plans for a £2 billion wind farm off the Fife coast has called on bird protection charity the RSPB to abandon any further potential legal proceedings which could scupper the project and put hundreds of potential jobs at risk.

Developers Mainstream Renewable Power estimates that during construction the Neart Na Gaoithe (NnG) wind farm will create around 500 direct jobs, support hundreds of indirect jobs and generate an estimated £540 million in contracts for Scottish businesses.

Once operational in 2021, the company says it will also create around 100 direct, permanent jobs and bring an additional estimated £610m in revenue into the regional economy.

That’s aside from the environmental benefits of the 450MW wind farm generating sufficient electricity for around 325,000 homes.

But in an interview with The Courier, Andy Kinsella, chief operating officer at Mainstream Renewable Power, has warned that this could all be jeopardized if the RSPB decides to appeal directly to the UK Supreme Court, despite their application having recently been rejected by Scotland’s highest court.

The project – and two other nearby arrays proposed by Inch Cape and Seagreen with a collective development value of circa £10bn – have been in limbo for more than two years after the RSPB launched a court action to overturn planning permission granted to the developers by Scottish ministers.

RSPB Scotland initially won its case but the decision was overturned in May in a ruling presided over by Scotland’s most senior judge, Lord President, Lord Carloway.

RSPB Scotland is concerned about the consent process as well as the impact of the proposed arrays on puffin colonies and other bird life in the vicinity.

In June, the bird conservation group lodged an application with the Inner House of the Court of Session seeking leave to appeal that decision to the Supreme Court, but that request was denied last month, giving the charity until this Wednesday to decide whether to appeal to the UK Supreme Court directly.

Mr Kinsella said: “We are calling on the RSPB to respect Scotland’s consenting process and the recent court decisions and abandon any further proceedings.

“This is a £2bn investment. We’ve had that money lined up and ready to go for two-and-a-half years.

“The only thing preventing us from reaching financial closure on this and starting construction is the RSPB challenge.

“If they go to the Supreme Court, it doesn’t mean the Supreme Court will accept that they give them leave to appeal.

“But if they go to the court, and it is accepted, it will lead to another minimum delay in the project of a year, and there’s also the danger that if the RSPB don’t get the right result from their point of view in the Supreme Court that they could appeal it further to Europe which could take years.”

If the RSPB do not appeal, Mainstream says it is ready to start construction early next year, with the wind farm at full output by October 2021.

Acrossroads is reached this week in a long-running legal wrangle over the Neart na Gaoithe offshore wind project in the Firth of Forth. The RSPB charity has until Wednesday to lodge papers challenging a court refusal to grant them leave to appeal to the Supreme Court the planning approval given by Scottish ministers for the offshore turbine field.

The project has been through the planning process and an exhaustive trail of legal hearings and appeals in the Scottish courts. A decision has been made and it is now time for a resolution.

The tenth anniversary of the launch of the Neart na Gaoithe project is approaching. It is not for the sake of investors that time must be called on the legal process, but for the sake of jobs and investment.

There is a workforce in Dundee that would lap up the jobs that will be created during the construction phase of the project and afterwards in maintenance contracts. Dundee is in pole position to win the work.

The bigger prize, however, would be the marker it would set down for future renewables and decommissioning contracts. The skill-set of the local workforce would be improved but, more importantly, companies in the supply chain would be able to demonstrate with real examples that Dundee, Fife and Angus can deliver on large-scale engineering projects in these sectors.

If the environmental and ecological arguments had not been heard or even arguments over due process then the RSPB would be right to demand a day in court. But they have and it is time to move on.

In the time it has taken the project to wind its way through court, technology has moved on so much that the number of turbines needed for the field has been dramatically reduced.

Perhaps the time and energy of all concerned would be better spent working together to achieve what must be everyone’s twin aims of minimising any potential impact the development could have on the bird population and maximising the human benefit of significant industrial investment in and around Dundee.

Andy Kinsella, chief operating officer at Mainstream Renewable Power, is calling on the RSPB to abandon any further proceedings.