Wind farm plans offer to boost economy, but at what cost?

Plans by British Energy and Amec to build one of the world’s largest wind farms over the moors of North Lewis have come against intense opposition from locals.

The plans would entail a huge arc of 181 turbines, each 140m tall, that would curve down the Northern half of the Scottish island.

The plans have provoked much controversy as the imposing turbines would pose a threat to the moor’s delicate and currently internationally protected habitats, home to rare birds such as red-throated divers, golden eagles, merlin, golden plover and dunlin.

Over a week ago it was revealed that the Scottish Executive was likely to refuse the £500m scheme as a result of the damage it would cause to not just the habitats but also to the natural environment; a treeless terrain of plentiful black peat and ochre grasses.

Yet since this decision Scottish ministers and the European Comission have been subject to intense lobbying and pressure from councillors, developers and crofter’ leaders to reverse the initial decision and save the north Lewis scheme.

They claim that the 600mw undertaking could potentially supply a tenth of Scotland’s renewable electricity which would in turn significantly boost UK efforts to cut CO2 emissions.

Today Alasdair Allan, local Scottish National party MSP, faces these people at a meeting on Lewis.

Locals have spoken of the intense heartbreak any change to their moor would cause.

Although each crofter would be given £2000 a year in rent, most locals snigger at this attempt, as they see it, to buy their approval to the change that would threaten their community’s heritage.

Just 77 people have written to support the plan compared to the 13000 opponents; three quarters of whom are islanders.

Furthermore regularly held surveys of crofters and tourists show a large opposition to the scheme.

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, the Western Isles council is steadfast in it’s opinion that the plans are vital to the island’s economy.

The Stornoway Trust also hoolds this opinion. The Western Isles has a trade shortfall of £163m each year with a distinctly fragile economy, kept alive by state subsidies, a study recently revealed.

The wind farm’s supporters say that the plans will provide much needed jobs to the skilled workers of the island, many of whom currently have to leave the island to the mainland in order to find suitable jobs. Current predictions claim that over the next 25 years approximately one in six will leave the island to work elsewhere.

The Stornoway Trust’s estate manager, Iain Maclver, has stated that a rejection of the scheme would be harmful to the council’s long term ambition to make the Western Isles a renewable energy hub.

The wind farm would earn the island roughly £6m per annum in benefits, whilst crofters would earn £2m a year for 20 years.

The wind farm would realistically directly affect only 2% of the legally protected moor.