It was hardly Occupy Wall Street or the Indignados, but the 40 or so anti-wind farm protesters who picketed the SNP conference in Inverness last week have caused something of a stir.
The Press and Journal devoted three pages to the protest, indicating the depth of feeling on the issue in the North East. The campaign has been given an added impetus by a map released by Scottish Natural Heritage chronicling the full extent of planned and existing wind farms in Scotland today.
Protesters say the map (inset) reveals a country being invaded by forests of ugly, disruptive and inefficient turbines and a Scottish Government indifferent to the few who live alongside them.
As the party prepared for a speech from First Minister Alex Salmond, stuffed with praise for Scotland’s renewables revolution, Holyrood spoke to several of the protesters at the entrance to the Eden Court Theatre complex, and found a determined and articulate bunch composed of local groups from all over rural Scotland. One woman, pointing to the theatre, explained that as a former activist she had been “in there” year-in, year-out until the party’s energy policies forced her into this unlikely position.
The arguments were hardly new but confidently made. Wind farms, they said, are being thrown up around Scotland despite little or no consultation with nearby communities. These unwanted turbines push up energy bills and damage wildlife.
And while some protesters offered ‘nimby’- style complaints of ruined vistas and an irritating hum, many calmly reiterated that the technology is simply too unreliable and expensive to depend on.
Whether out of damage limitation or a commendable willingness to engage with the other side of the argument, a number of SNP MSPs and activists made time to speak with the protesters and present the party’s case.
Rob Gibson, the Convener of the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee and MSP for the vast Caithness, Sutherland and Ross constituency, spent 15 minutes debating with the group. Later on, Fergus Ewing, Energy Minister and local MSP, met with a representation from the protesters, discussing their concerns and promising to maintain a dialogue including further meetings. The SNP hopes technological advances will mean the development of offshore wind and marine energy will rebalance its renewables policy away from the onshore projects that caused all the disquiet, but with the number of wind farms already in the pipeline, it is unlikely this issue will be going away any time soon.
"The campaign has been given an added impetus by a map released by Scottish Natural Heritage" – not quite so. We've been producing the windfarm map since 2008, updating it every six months to reflect the changes in the applications in the system. The last version was published in July 2011.
The map shows all applications in the system, including those at scoping. Many of these will not make it to construction due to various constraints (not just natural heritage) on development. It is not, therefore, a map of windfarms which will all be built.
The map shows the planning application boundary of the windfarm, not the turbine locations or its physical footprint.
We produce this map to provide an overview of windfarm development across Scotland. It provides no analysis, or interpretation. Nor does it intend to differentiate between good and bad windfarms, or good and bad locations for future windfarms. It's simply a map showing installed, consented and application stage windfarms.
The main objection is that the general public and local communities have no say in these developments be it in a larger or a small scale. It is the many subsiding those who can afford which is at the cost of local communities and the environment. It is about time we had a say in all this and our costs reduced.
Properties are being de-valued, neighbours being divided. What will the true cost and outcome be we wonder. We feel the disavantages outweigh the benefits. This will also deter many tourists from visiting Scotland from far and wide all to see the natural beauty eroded away. We despair.
FUEL POVERTY AND WINDFARMS
Most people know that wind-farms would not exist without subsidies. And most people know that they are a threat to our most beautiful countryside. What most people don’t know is that these subsidies (which go mostly to foreign companies and rich landowners) aren’t paid by the government, but instead are financed entirely from electricity bills. This covert tariff throttles economic growth, makes our exports less competitive, and is horrendous for the seven million people in fuel poverty.
If you want this scam to end, please vote for a recent e-petition that asks for a reform of wind-farm subsidies that will reduce electricity bills. Please go either to the government e-petition website (http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/), and then type “reduce electricity bills”. Or you only have to Google: “electricity petition”.
When the petition has reached its target, it will be eligible for a five-hour debate in the House of Commons. Let’s hope this pressurizes the government into reducing our inflated electricity bills.