9 November 2016
Theresa May’s administration was angrily accused of “misleading” the Scottish Government.
Scottish energy minister, Paul Wheelhouse, said the islands had a tight timeline to allow wind projects and the transmission links to be built.
Mr Wheelhouse stressed: “It is simply unacceptable that they now jeopardise these highly significant projects by proposing a further indefinite delay.”
It also throws the decision on building the Western Isles subsea cable “into the long grass,” he pointed out.
The Conservative government has now stopped subsiding land-based wind generators but previously suggested it would make an exception for developments in the Western Isles and the Northern Isles.
Ministers seemed sympathetic to introducing a scheme to take account of the steeper costs of exporting renewable energy from the Hebrides to mainland markets.
Hopes were dashed when UK Energy Secretary Greg Clark revealed island turbines are excluded from the round of ‘Contracts for Difference’ funding announced today.
The government said: “We have enough onshore wind in the pipeline to meet our 2020 target.”
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