In the Scotsman today. The SAS letter, Shot in the foot is also in The National
Shot in the foot
The decision in principle by the Scottish Government to grant planning permission for a completely unnecessary massive offshore wind farm (Berwick Bank) to be constructed in an environmentally sensitive location frankly beggars belief, especially given the scale of the well-judged opposition, which has simply been ignored.
The irony is that Holyrood is currently contemplating the introduction of an Ecocide Bill, at the very time that the Scottish Government is complicit in ecocide committed by renewable energy companies on an ever-expanding scale.
We note that “SSE Renewables will have to provide a plan to counter any impact the wind farm may have on seabirds to be approved by ministers”, but this is thin gruel, especially as SSE is quoted as admitting in its own environmental impact assessment that more than 31,000 bird collisions are estimated during its lifespan. What will their proposed “mitigation” provide? It is to be hoped that it will be something better than the farcically inappropriate plans Equinor has put in place to construct an inappropriately sited nesting habitat for Arctic terns, hundreds of miles from its proposed massive wind farm extension off the coast of Norfolk. Whatever it is, it is difficult to see how it can provide more than a small sticking plaster for a deliberate act of ecocide that should never have been granted permission
The Scottish Government may well have shot themselves in the foot. Even people who would not normally object to a wind farm are sickened by this decision. The sleeping giant in the name of Joe Public has awakened.
Aileen Jackson Scotland Against Spin, Uplawmoor, East Renfrewshire
Strange Silence
There is a deafening silence from Holyrood over the unit cost of electricity from Berwick Bank.
There are non-stop claims that the output is the cheapest electricity generation system in the UK, but what the SNP Energy Secretary refuses to admit is that the party have taken out three “insurance policies” to keep the lights on in Scotland as wind output is both unreliable and inefficient.
The first “policy” is the myriad battery units required to ensure grid stability during short lulls in wind speed (over a period of minutes). The second is the output from pump store plant to cover a lack of wind over a time period of about six hours. The last is the proposed 25GW of hydrogenfuelled gas turbines to cover for dunkelflaute weather conditions.
Why, then, do our 129 MSPS refuse to inform the people of Scotland of the unit cost of wind output that includes the capital repayment and operational running costs of the three projects?
Ian Moir Castle Douglas, Dumfries &
Galloway
Forth Birds
It’s an amazing experience to go on a boat trip to see the puffins and world-famous colony of gannets on Bass Rock. The Scottish Government has approved the Berwick Bank offshore wind farm, one of the largest wind farms in the world, which they acknowledge will affect the birds. It is off the coast of the seabirds colonies of St Abb’s Head, too. The developer predicts 31,000 collisions during its 30-year life span.
I do not think it is possible to predict the behaviour of birds with such accuracy.
When we moved to our cottage in 1992 we would have skeins of pink-footed geese over our cottage in spring and autumn. Gladhouse Reservoir was made a Ramsar site because of the numbers there. My parents marvelled at the sight when they visited In 1999. In 2002 Bowbeat wind farm was built in the Moorfoot Hills on the flight path and we have not seen skeins from that direction for many years, and the Gladhouse numbers are now low – so much so that the RSPB could not put in an objection to the 18-turbine, 180m high Torfichen windfarm, near Gladhouse, on pink foot grounds but had to rely on other species.
How can we justify such a large experiment when Scotland is world famous for these species and we already have enough wind power for our own needs?
Celia Hobbs Penicuik, Midlothian
0 Comments