The decision by the Scottish Government to deny planning approval to the giant wind farm on Lewis should be applauded. It is the first glimmer of light in the whole tortuous debate on renewable energy.
The previous Labour/LibDem executive had no coherent strategy for wind energy, simply offering lucrative inducements to power companies and landowners which led to a stampede to erect giant turbines. Hundreds of applications are still in the planning pipeline, many of them in inappropriate locations which would threaten flora and fauna and industrialise some of Scotland's most spectacular landscape. Worse still, by destroying deep peatland, as would have been the case on Lewis, these wind farms would create more carbon emissions than they would save.
Peat is a global carbon sink, storing millions of tonnes of CO2 during the tens of thousands of years the peat is formed from rotting vegetation. The first thing a contractor does before building a giant windmill on peatland is to drain the area, thus releasing all of the stored CO2 into the atmosphere. The peatland is also subsequently destroyed as a carbon sump.
Taken together with the construction of mammoth steel towers, huge metal sails, vast concrete foundations, borrow pits, drains, roads, powerlines and pylons, the carbon footprint from every wind farm on deep peat far exceeds any environmental saving.
The decision to refuse approval for the Lewis wind farm hopefully is the first of many such decisions. Similar applications for wind farms on deep peatland on Dava Moor (Grantown on Spey), Gordonbush (Sutherland), Edinbane (Skye) and Kergord Valley (Shetland) and other locations, should all be stopped. Wind energy has a role in a renewable energy mix, but it must be planned and sited.
Struan Stevenson, MEP, The European Parliament, Brussels.
If the news reported today is accurate, the Scottish Government is to be applauded for its courageous decision to refuse permission for the Lewis wind farm. It would appear that the decision was taken on environmental grounds and because of the considerable concern expressed by the European Commission. The implications for other wind farms must be obvious.
Campaigners had consistently warned that this wind farm would cause irreversible damage to one of the country's most important wetland sites. In addition, the RSPB also opposed the project, disputing job figures put forward by developers and raising concerns about the wind farm's impact on wildlife.
However, it needs to be remembered that there are other wind farm applications such as at Edinbane on Skye, Dava Moor and Gordonbush where the same reasons for refusal would apply and the Scottish Executive needs to take this into account, bearing in mind that the European Commission is also concerned about these potential developments.
John B P Hodgson, Chairman, Skye Wind Farm Action Group Ltd, Kerrol Farm, Edinbane, Skye
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article