Written evidence submitted by Scotland Against Spin

Scotland Against Spin was established in December 2012 as an alliance of local groups and individuals opposed to Scottish wind energy policy. It campaigns for the reform of this policy, lobbying government at all levels and supporting anybody fighting local wind applications. It is recognised by the Scottish media as the voice of the Scottish anti-wind movement and was the instigator and major stakeholder in the recent Scottish Government-commissioned study into the impacts of wind farms on residential amenity. As an NGO, SAS is entirely independent of political and commercial interests.

How important is the renewable energy sector in Scotland to the Scottish economy, to meeting Scotland’s energy needs and to meeting the UK’s renewable and climate change targets?

The renewable energy sector contributed a net output of just over 0.5% to total Scottish GDP in 2015[1]. Output from wind turbines was 62% of total renewable output in 2014[2], so the contribution of wind energy to Scottish GDP is around the 0.3% mark.

While the Scottish wind sector may have employed 5,400 people in 2013[3], it is important to remember that the bulk of these jobs will have been in development and construction and are by their nature short-term and temporary. As the authors of a recent survey for the UK Government remark, “[d]uring the operations phase [for onshore wind], the number of jobs falls dramatically and these may be dispersed from the site”[4]. As an energy technology, onshore wind employs remarkably few people in Scotland compared to fossil fuel or nuclear power stations. Many wind farms are operated remotely online from centres outside Scotland.

Scotland has failed to establish a manufacturing industry for wind. Only one factory exists which produces wind towers and this owes its continued existence to a buy-out by SSE and a £3.4 million investment by Highlands and Islands Enterprise. It provided 134 full-time equivalent posts in 2013[5].

A constant complaint from communities forced to host wind farms is that they provide no long-term or permanent employment for locals beyond the “cement and sandwiches” phase of construction. Academic research bears out the perception that while wind turbines may cause rural GDP to increase, there is almost no effect on local household income unless the turbines are locally owned (eg. by farmers) or in community ownership[6].

Although the Scottish Government has done what it can to encourage operators to provide community benefit, it remains voluntary, with the oldest and many of the largest wind farms paying nothing or rates well below the recommended minimum of £5000 per MW of installed capacity, which in any case may comprise less than 2% of a wind farm’s actual revenue. Community benefit is disbursed via a variety of schemes in the third sector where a lack of regulation means economic and social benefits are less extensive and lasting than they could be.

Indeed anecdotal evidence suggests that wind farm development may well be harming the tourist economy, with return bookings for B&Bs reduced once wind turbines are erected nearby and surveys showing that visitors to Scotland’s mountains and wild areas are put off by industrial wind farms.

Another indicator of the negative economic impact of wind development is the growing evidence of a fall in property values proportional to turbine proximity[7]. Furthermore the planning blight created by the thousands of turbines which have either been consented and not yet erected or are proposed and at various stages in the planning process is extensive.

Research by an economics thinktank in 2011 found that due to opportunity costs and higher energy prices every job created by subsidised wind development involves the loss of 3.7 jobs elsewhere in the UK.

The Scottish Government has never carried out an independent cost-benefit analysis of its wind energy policy, and apart from a few isolated community-owned projects, there is astonishingly little concrete evidence that the operation of wind farms (as opposed to their development and construction) is having a lasting positive impact on the Scottish economy.

The role of wind in meeting Scotland’s energy needs is limited by wind’s inherent intermittency and uncontrollability which means it cannot be relied on to provide baseload or dispatchable generation. Recent analysis of electricity transfers suggests that virtually all of Scotland’s wind power is currently exported to England or constrained off, with Scotland having met its indigenous demand from conventional sources, namely nuclear, coal and hydro[8]. It is wholly misleading to infer that Scottish wind output meets actual electricity demand in Scotland.

Although the closure of Longannet will mean Scotland becomes dependent on wind to keep its lights on, peak demand on windless days will have to be met by imports from England and Wales. However, the ability of England and Wales to make up shortfalls in Scottish electricity generation will be limited both by English and Welsh output and demand and by interconnection capacity. Concerns have also been raised that the closure of Longannet means Scotland will lack the ability to ‘black-start’ should nuclear output unexpectedly cease and interconnectors be unable to supply sufficient power[9].

The proliferation of Scottish wind power, encouraged by UK subsidies, the constraint payment system, market interventions which discriminate against fossil fuel generators and a permissive Scottish planning system, has led to an unbalanced energy mix in which security of supply is increasingly threatened.

Scottish wind has made a disproportionate contribution to meeting the UK’s target for renewable energy in the European Renewables Directive (2009). Consented wind capacity in Scotland will contribute to a significant overshooting of this target.

The alleged contribution of wind energy to climate change targets is unreal because it omits the carbon costs of adjustments to the whole energy system when wind energy is incorporated (ie. fossil fuel back-up, transmission and load balancing).

Will current UK Government energy policy maintain a stable renewables industry in Scotland and support future growth in the sector?

Current UK Government energy policy supports all existing operational wind turbines in receipt of subsidy as these contracts have not been rescinded or modified. Subsidy cuts will affect future growth by discouraging speculative applications for less than optimal developments. By the same token, the cuts are refocussing all aspects of wind development (site selection and design; turbine technology) to maximize efficiency, minimize costs and encourage technological innovation. This is the only way for the wind industry to achieve genuine stability and sustainability. Over-generous public subsidies have allowed the wind industry in Scotland to make excessive profits and sapped the commercial impetus to cut wind energy costs and develop other renewable technologies.

What is the potential impact of changes to levels of public subsidy on the renewable energy sector in Scotland?

The immediate impact is that applications for single turbines and small wind farms are ceasing to be brought forward as the subsidy cuts mean they are economically unviable. Many communities and local authorities, which have been besieged by speculative wind developers, have breathed a sigh of relief that the flood of applications is being checked.

Onshore wind development in Scotland has arguably reached saturation point. The Scottish Government is on course to meet its 2020 target for 100% renewable energy (although it has recently redefined this as an unlimited target) and intense speculative activity over the last decade has ensured the best and (sometimes) least environmentally damaging sites have been taken. Local communities and local authorities in rural areas have become increasingly hostile to further development in onshore wind and the grid cannot handle much more wind energy. The subsidy cuts have merely created a watershed in a finite process of onshore wind expansion which was in any case drawing to a close.

Larger wind farms, or extensions to or repowerings of existing developments, which can take advantage of economies of scale, existing infrastructure or more efficient technology, will continue to be developed. It is only the latter larger developments which make a significant contribution to energy output.

March 2016