The wind turbine landscapes of Scotland
The view to Arran from the Ayrshire coast is one of the most cherished in Scotland. Yet turn your head and a new horizon opens up. Stark against the skyline are the turbines of a giant wind farm.
Graceful and mesmerising? A necessary investment for our future? Or just a blot on the landscape? Whether we like it or not, Scotland is at the forefront of the UK's wind-energy industry. Our moorlands and hillsides are becoming nurseries for wind farms, which dominate the landscape and have begun to dominate local politics.
Supporters argue that they provide a solution to a looming energy crisis and offer Scotland the chance to lead the rest of the world. Opponents say they are a scar on the landscape and threaten wildlife.
Wind farms have become battlegrounds because they are the most visible of the renewable energy sources. In Scotland there are now 40 wind farms, 20 more are being built, and a further 28 have received planning permission. There are another 73 awaiting approval.
For many Ayrshire residents, the wind-farm revolution seems to have been worth it. Two years ago, Airtricity erected 12 turbines on the outskirts of Ardrossan and there is planning permission for three more. The turbines are on a hill, which means they are not close to individual houses but can still be seen almost anywhere in the town. There were no recorded objections to the proposal.
Margaret Munn is the Scottish Labour councillor for Ardrossan South. "Before the turbines were erected, people here had some concerns," she says. "They were worried that the wind farm was going to look ugly and spoil the landscape, and that it would be noisy. There was a fear of the unknown, but also a bit of excitement because it was something new. Once it was up, it was amazing. People were saying it looked super, and we discovered there was no noise. In fact, some people said they found them quite soothing to look at.
"Now people are taking ownership of them. I can see them from my street, looking down on the town. It hasn't spoiled the landscape. I'd say it enhances it."
Stuart Irvine, 67, lives in the small fishing village of Carradale on the east coast of Kintyre and is the treasurer of the East Kintyre Community Council. The village is close to several wind farms, including one at Beinn an Tuirc, set up by Scottish Power. "The turbines have been carefully positioned among the hills," Irvine explains. "You do see them from the road but they are not in the slightest way offensive. Tourism is very important in Kintyre and, if anything, I would say the turbines attract people – they want to come and look at them. I don't think they are any more unsightly than electricity pylons.
"I think to oppose any progress towards guaranteeing power supplies in the future is futile. There is an element of a price to be paid. I can honestly say I have never heard any complaints about the wind turbines we have here."
As turbines become a more common sight in the countryside, the public are becoming more supportive. A survey carried out in August revealed that 83% of Scots agree wind farms are necessary – 12% higher than demonstrated by a similar poll two years earlier.
But not all local authorities agree. According to the green energy body Scottish Renewables, the planning approval rate has dropped from 70% seven years ago to 40% in the past two years, and it is taking longer for projects to get the go-ahead. "The determination time needs to be accelerated so that a market for renewable energy can be established and we can lock in the economic benefits to Scotland," says Jason Ormiston, acting chief executive of Scottish Renewables. "We are concerned that the authorities don't have the resources to process applications in an efficient fashion. There may be political nervousness at local level when councillors are faced with campaigns from minorities."
The pressure to find clean energy has never been greater. According to the Scottish Energy Study, published this year, 34% of all energy consumed in Scotland in 2002 was domestic – heating, light and all those televisions and DVD players left on standby. Transport (not including flights) consumed 29%, and industry accounted for 21%. Our ever-increasing energy consumption, coupled with escalating prices, means that, regardless of environmental issues, a new, reliable source is required.
According to uSwitch, a price comparison website, gas bills have increased by 87% since the beginning of 2004, with the equivalent of an increase of £298 on each household bill. Meanwhile, electricity bills have risen by 58%, which equates to £142 on each bill. The Scottish Executive, ahead of Westminster, staked its commitment when it announced a target of 40% of energy to come from renewables by 2020.
"In the drive to create zero-carbon electricity, heat and transport, and the setting of government targets to do that, the commercially proven technologies available are large-scale hydro and on-shore wind, closely followed by bio-mass," says Ormiston. "There may not be many opportunities left to develop large-scale hydro, and there is work under way to solve the supply-chain issues regarding bio-mass and put it on a sound footing with other technologies. Therefore on-shore wind is the mature technology, along with hydro, and both have had a head-start on other emerging technologies."
Ormiston explains that an average wind turbine at a reasonable site would produce in excess of 4.7 million units of electricity each year – enough to meet the annual needs of more than 1000 households. The cost of turning wind into energy, based on the average on-shore wind farm, is between three and four pence per unit. Coal costs between 2.5p and 4.5p per unit; nuclear costs between four and seven pence.
Ormiston adds: "In the 1980s Scotland was one of the early pioneers of wind power in Europe, but eventually lost out to Germany and Denmark, despite the fact that we are the windiest country in Europe. However, we are catching up. Since Scotland's first wind farm was built in 1996, the country has demonstrated the potential to be a major producer of green, clean electricity, and Scottish Renewables anticipate that, during 2007, around 8% of Scotland's annual electricity needs will be provided by wind power. This is likely to double by the end of the decade, placing Scotland firmly in the premier league of Europe's wind producers."
The technology that led to today's large turbines was developed here in the 1980s. A lack of investment led to the patents being sold to Denmark, one of the first countries in Europe to invest in wind energy. It has supported 50,000 jobs in the industry over the past 30 years.
Off-shore wind farms are often cited as an alternative by those who are critical of the aesthetics of on-shore farms. But how viable are they? "Off-shore wind power does have a strong long-term future, but it is a new technology, particularly in Scotland where we don't have shallow offshore coast," says Ormiston.
A £5m test project in the Moray Firth will be the world's first attempt to put turbines in deep water. It will build on the technological expertise of the oil and gas sector – but it will be expensive, and there is a need for a grid infrastructure. At this moment in time, it is on-shore wind energy that seems more viable – and the fact that private companies such as Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy are investing in wind farms seems testament to this.
Chris Morris of the Energy Saving Trust sums up the view of windfarms supporters. "We need to act now, today not tomorrow, to reduce carbon emissions," he says. "We need to embrace energy efficiency, and renewables and wind power have an important role. The biggest contributor to emissions is people's homes, so that is the market we have to tackle."
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