Queen wins power struggle over Balmoral turbine

Park authority rules hydro-electric generator can be built despite fears it would damage woodland

THE Queen has won a battle against environmental campaigners to build a hydro-electric turbine at Balmoral.

Her Majesty wanted to build a twomegawatt generator on the River

Muick, which runs through her 50,000-acre estate in Scotland. It would generate up to £650,000 of energy a year: enough to power the estate and then sell on the surplus to the National Grid.

But opponents feared it would be too noisy for woodland creatures such as red squirrels, badgers, otters, voles, red grouse, black grouse and snow bunting.

The Muick also hosts salmon and is the focus of a three-year nutrient restoration trial for the springers run by the

River Dee’s fisheries board, which aims to protect and restore stocks. Initially, Aberdeenshire council’s environment department objected. Louise Cunningham said in planning documents: “Typically, hydropower turbines can emit significant amounts of noise.”

Consequently, the plans were called in by the Cairngorms National Park Authority, which wanted a closer look at the environmental impact. It later approved them. A similar hydropower scheme was commissioned by Balmoral Estates in 2014 on the Gelder

Burn, a stream that also runs through the area. Richard Gledson, on behalf of Balmoral Estates, said: “Following on the success of this project, and with a view to increasing the economic and environmental sustainability of Balmoral Estates, a study was carried out in 2013 into the potential for additional hydro generation.”

Outlining the decision, the park authority accepted it would jar with the national park but stressed no work should be undertaken during the nesting season from February to August.

The scheme will provide “greener” electricity to the estate, with the turbines the fourth and fifth to be installed there. The first provided electric lighting for Queen Victoria in 1898.

It is not the first time the Queen has clashed with environmentists over her 50,000-acre working estate. In February, she came under pressure to cull deer after campaigners said their large numbers were causing too much damage. The Scottish Government had recommended thousands of deer should be culled annually. Nick

Kempe, the former president of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, told the Daily Record: “How land at Balmoral is managed has implications because other big landowners follow the example set by the Royal family.”

Last week, The Daily Telegraph reported that the Prince of Wales would not be able to go ahead with his plans for a red squirrel sanctuary at Dumfries House over concerns that grey squirrels could get into the enclosures and attack the endangered red squirrels.