The Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen will seek to persuade a judge this week that ministers were wrong to endorse plans for 22 giant turbines in the Scottish Highlands.
Povlsen, who is Scotland’s second-largest private landowner, is funding a judicial review of the Creag Riabhach wind farm amid fears it could be a “Trojan horse” that paves the way for further industrialisation of the most remote parts of the country.
Sources close to Povlsen said he fears a tourism boost from the North Coast 500 — Scotland’s answer to Route 66 in America — will be damaged by 125-metre turbines, each as tall as the Norman Foster-designed Willis skyscraper in London. The structures will be visible from several of Povlsen’s estates.
Lawyers for Povlsen, a fashion retail magnate, will argue that Paul Wheelhouse, the business, innovation and energy minister, should have rejected the wind farm application on the grounds that it poses a threat to local tourism, will damage the landscape and could set a dangerous precedent.
Creag Riabhach would be the first wind farm located on wild land, which is defined as areas with minimal signs of human influence, since new planning guidelines were adopted three years ago. Of its 22 turbines, five will sit on a protected area.
“This is the last chance to prevent the wind farm being built,” said Bob Reid, a spokesman for Wildland, Povlsen’s Scottish company. “We think it’s crazy and we believe the Trojan horse analogy stands up. Anders is not against renewable energy but he is convinced the ministers’ decision was wrong.”
Since 2014, several developments have been rejected by the Scottish government because of their negative impact on wild land, prompting conservationists to claim the Creag Riabhach decision is inconsistent with planning policy and practice.
It is understood that some lawyers who once told renewable energy firms that building on wild land was a “non-starter” have softened their position in light of Wheelhouse’s decision.
Helen McDade, head of policy at the John Muir Trust, said: “We were surprised and disappointed by the decision to approve Creag Rhiabach and argued that the application should have been subject to the scrutiny of a public local inquiry. We believe this could potentially open the floodgates to yet more damage to our wild land.”
Scottish Natural Heritage said the development would “significantly and adversely affect wild land”, while VisitScotland, the tourism agency, expressed concern over the potential negative impact on tourism.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust warned that the scheme would damage blanket bog and undermine the government’s climate change targets, while Mountaineering Scotland pointed to the visual disfigurement of a key mountain landscape, which includes Ben Klibreck and Ben Hope.
Povlsen has emerged as one of the biggest private investors in the Highlands, but there are concerns he could start to tighten the purse strings if industrialisation of iconic landscapes continues. The Dane owns about a dozen Scottish estates, and recently gave £200,000 to renovate Castle Varrich, near Tongue. His decision to fund the judicial review of Creag Riabhach followed a failed legal appeal by the John Muir Trust against the Stronelairg wind farm in the Monadhliath mountains. The charity was forced to pay £125,000 in legal costs.
“The John Muir Trust is all too aware of the huge cost of challenging cases in court on environmental grounds, and believes it is time to revisit a previous SNP Scottish manifesto commitment to consider a specialist environmental court,” said McDade.
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