How to dump old turbines at a cost of £18k

A SCOTTISH Government quango is planning to hand private consultants up to £18,000 worth of taxpayers’ money in return for advice on how to dump broken wind turbines at landfill sites.

Scottish Enterprise (SE) has disclosed plans to pay a ‘qualified consultant’ for advice on how to dispose of turbines at ‘the end of their useable life’.

Wind farms are a central pillar of the SNP’s green agenda, with the number of turbines standing at almost 2,700.

But recently-published documents have revealed civil servants are offering to pay thousands of pounds to anyone who can offer advice on the ‘disposal of existing turbines (or component parts) into landfill’.

Consultants have been invited to bid for the chance to produce a document which could cost the taxpayer £17,820.

TaxpayerScotland’s Eben Wilson said: ‘How extraordinary the end-of-life costs of so-called environmentally friendly technologies are only now being considered.’

Scottish Tory energy spokesman Alexander Burnett said: ‘The SNP has created a wind energy gravy train and it seems there are still no signs of this coming to an end.’

An SE spokesman said the advice will ‘support Scotland’s ambition to be sustainable while helping identify economic opportunities from re-use of materials’.