A storm is brewing in the Western Isles as a war over the rights to a lucrative windfarm begins at the Scottish Land Court tomorrow. Four island crofting townships will take on community landowner Stornoway Trust and Lewis Wind Power. The trust has agreed a deal with Lewis Wind Power, owned by energy giant EDF Renewables and engineering firm Amec-Foster-Wheeler, which could see a 36-turbine windfarm capable of generating £30million a year being built. Lewis Wind Power has made a Section 19 application to develop on the common grazings around Stornoway with or without the consent of the crofters.
Energy Voice 23rd Aug 2017 read more »
GMB, the energy workers’ union, has today called for subsidies on renewable energy to paid for through general taxation alongside an investigation into a bonkers wind power ‘rip off racket’ centred in Scotland. It follows revelations that since 2010, energy bill payers have paid £328 million to wind farm owners for not generating any energy – most of them in Scotland. Meanwhile the Office for Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) predicts that the surcharge the UK’s 27 million households already pay is set to as much as treble over the next five years to £10 per week. The average wind farm receives roughly half of its income from the electricity wholesale price and half from subsidy via the Renewables Obligation Certificate (ROC) – the cost of which is passed on to consumers through their energy bills.
Scottish Energy News 23rd Aug 2017 read more »