We’ll put a wind farm on every new estate, says SNP
A RADICAL bid to make housing developers include wind farms on every new estate built in Scotland has been unveiled by the Scottish Government.
SNP ministers yesterday proposed that builders could be forced to pledge to put up turbines before being granted planning consent for major developments.
The revelation came as they also set a new target to ensure that 50 per cent of all energy required for heat, electricity and transport will come from renewables by 2030 – up from their initial goal of 30 per cent.
But critics yesterday said many communities are already ‘fed up’ with the SNP obsession with spreading wind farms across the country – and insisted Scotland is reaching ‘saturation point’.
Scottish Conservative energy spokesman Alexander Burnett MSP said: ‘Many communities up and down the country are already fed up with the SNP’s continual drive to site more wind farms in their areas.
‘We are reaching saturation point for windfarms yet the Scottish Government still seem to think we need more.’
The new target appears to indicate that ministers are now preparing for the demise of the vital oil and gas industry, but Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse stressed that the North Sea will continue to provide ‘a stable energy supply for decades to come’. FULL STORY – PAGE 5
EVERY major new housing estate could be forced to include its own wind farm under radical plans to ramp up the amount of energy created from renewables.
SNP ministers want to encourage the spread of wind farms across every community in Scotland.
They have proposed developers could be made to promise to build turbines before getting planning consent for housing sites and other major developments such as shopping centres or supermarkets.
The details emerged after the Scottish Government yesterday set a target to ensure half of energy north of the Border comes from green sources by 2030. The target, contained within the new ‘Scottish energy strategy’, relies on a massive increase in the number of onshore wind farms – as well as major development of offshore wind, which is still largely untested in the UK.
But critics hit out at the SNP’s wind farm ‘obsession’.
Scottish Conservative energy spokesman Alexander Burnett said: ‘Many communities up and down the country are already fed up with the SNP’s continual drive to site more wind farms in their area.
‘It’s clear that we are reaching saturation point for wind farms, yet the Scottish Government still seem to think we need more.
‘It’s time they started to look into other forms of renewable energy instead of obsessing with onshore wind.’
The Scottish Government’s energy strategy states ‘most’ of the growth in renewables since 2001 can already be attributed to onshore wind – but adds more needs to be done to allow for the ‘next phase’ of development. One of the proposals contained within a consultation document is that ‘wind farm efficiency’ should be a ‘material consideration’ in the formal process for approving applications on developments that require electricity to be generated.
The document states: ‘In so doing, Scottish ministers might expect developers in
‘We’re reaching saturation point’
the future to explain how the design of a development balances environmental impacts against the contribution to the energy targets laid out in the Scottish Energy Strategy.’
It also proposes setting ‘regional targets’ for the number of wind farms within local authority areas.
The Scottish Energy Strategy reveals that ‘current and consented onshore wind capacity is enough to power the equivalent of every household in Scotland twice over’.
But it says that more needs to be done to encourage ‘future development’.
The Scottish Government has already set a target for the equivalent of 100 per cent of Scotland’s electricity needs to come from renewables by 2020. But it yesterday produced a new target for 50 per cent of energy required for heat, electricity and transport to come from renewables by 2030.
Previously, it had a target for this to reach 30 per cent by 2020. Currently, only 15 per cent of Scotland’s total energy needs come from renewables.
The proposals also rely on the ‘widespread adoption’ of electric cars, which are often criticised by motoring experts for their unreliability and need for regular charging.
The new target appears to indicate that ministers are now preparing for the demise of the vital oil and gas industry, which currently provides 75 per cent of Scotland’s total energy consumption.
However, energy minister Paul Wheelhouse yesterday stressed the North Sea would continue to provide ‘a stable energy supply for decades to come’.
Launching a consultation on his onshore wind plans yesterday, he also told MSPs at Holyrood that underground coal gasification, a technique similar to fracking, ‘will play no part in our energy mix’.
The Scottish Government has already imposed a moratorium on fracking.
Mr Wheelhouse confirmed it will ‘very shortly’ launch a full public consultation on whether to impose an outright ban, before finalising its plans ‘later this year’ and inviting MSPs to vote on them.