SCOTSMAN
Heritage vandals
Just when we thought the environmental damage couldn’t get any worse, it is horrifying to read there are “plans for 17-turbine wind farm on the edge of world heritage site” (Scotsman, 8 February). This proposed vandalism demonstrates perfectly the utter stupidity of the Scottish Government’s wind energy policy.
World Heritage Sites are areas with legal protection judged by Unesco contain “Outstanding Universal Value”. Our unique, precious Flow Country is an outstanding example.
The idiocy of intermittent energy from wind farms is also playing havoc with the Great Glen as the Coire Glas pumped storage scheme wrecks the hillside above Loch Lochy. The Great Glen and its scenic grandeur should also be a World Heritage Site.
George Herraghty, Lhanbryde, Moray
Herald
THERE have been no media reports over any agreement between John Swinney and Ed Miliband over the location of renewable generation plant to meet net zero targets.
Current forecasts are that the UK will require around 160GW of plant by 2040 once a ban on gas has been implemented. The current SNP energy plan was issued by Nicola Sturgeon prior to her resignation as First Minister. The strategy envisages 60GW of wind capacity supplemented by 25GW of gas turbine units utilising hydrogen as an energy source to cover dunkelflaute weather conditions.
The projected maximum Scottish demand in 2045 is 20GW, which means 65GW of power must be exported 24/7 to avoid massive Constraint
Payment costs.
However, if Ed Miliband saturates the North of England’s green and pleasant land with a plethora of wind farms there will be no spare grid capacity to transfer any surplus Scottish power via the massive pylons desecrating the Tweed Valley to the demand centres in the south of England.
Can the SNP reassure Border voters that an agreement in grid capacity has been reached with Ed Miliband to ensure despoiling rural Scotland is a price that Scots thinks worth paying ?
Ian Moir
Castle Douglas
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