Wind Turbines

[north beachmore]

It has been suggested on the Turbines & Tourism thread that it may be a good idea to have a general thread where anything relating to wind turbines in Kintyre can be aired...

So to set you off, here are two more proposals to get your teeth into.

http://www.blaryhill-windfarm.co.uk/the ... -farm.aspx

http://www.freasdail-windfarm.co.uk/the ... -farm.aspx

[argylltourist]

On reading the Blary Hill blurb on community benefit, I'm always amazed at the belief that these companies reckon we small rural communities can practically rebuild our infrastructure!

In Glenbarr, for eg. we have ONE public building and that is the school. Do these companies really have OUR interests at heart? Or, truthfully, we're just the mugs who'll have to put up with the upheaval, constant noise, and permanent destruction of a beautiful environment that everyone who lives there protects without any outside funding.

All we small rural areas require is that we do not encounter disbenefit. Is that asking too much?

p.s. I also have issue with windfarm companies creating a them and us scenario. It is not helpful.

[argylltourist]

Another serious consideration.


http://windfarmaction.wordpress.com/201 ... le-secret/

[mankind]

On reading the Blary Hill blurb on community benefit, I'm always amazed at the belief that these companies reckon we small rural communities can practically rebuild our infrastructure!

In Glenbarr, for eg. we have ONE public building and that is the school. Do these companies really have OUR interests at heart? Or, truthfully, we're just the mugs who'll have to put up with the upheaval, constant noise, and permanent destruction of a beautiful environment that everyone who lives there protects without any outside funding.

All we small rural areas require is that we do not encounter disbenefit. Is that asking too much?

p.s. I also have issue with windfarm companies creating a them and us scenario. It is not helpful.

I agree 100% with all that you say, argylltourist. It is grossly unfair that we have to endure watching the desecration of our beautiful countryside, primarily to line the pockets of fatcat greedy landlords. The love of money is, after all, the root of all evil. Why should we be forced to witness such evil destroy the area in which we chose to live because of its beauty and peace? This could not be further removed from an industrial environment and we must do all that we can to prevent it becoming so.

[WC1]

Couple of interesting articles on page 4 of today's Herald about Intelligent Land Investments, the company behind the rash of applications for single wind turbines all over Scotland (26 of them in Argyll and Bute alone). I can't find it on the Herald website, so I can't provide a link to it, but it seems this company will stand to make £30 million if its plan to cover Scotland with 250 such turbines succeeds. Former Labour energy minister Brian Wilson also has a comment piece on the same page, saying that the Feed-in-Tariff scheme's rules have made this scam possible. The Herald's main Leader comment is on the same subject.

You may remember I raised this on the Tomaig Wind Turbine thread away back on the 3rd of February:-

From the Intelligent Land Investments website:

Presently ILI RE is working alongside set government strategies to push the growth for single rural turbines within the feed in tariff. This is an opportunity like no other for landowners to benefit from a government set subsidy for the next 20yrs. We at ILI promise to do our upmost to deliver for all landowners we work with.


So it isn't really about green energy then.

No, it's about ILI raking in £30 million!!

[north beachmore]

This is the best I can get for this story. Well spotted WC1

Concern over company's £30m turbine windfall

Alison Campsie
Senior News Reporter

A LAND development company stands to rake in up to £30 million in public money every year if its plans to dot 250 individual wind turbines across Scotland are approved.

Intelligent Land Investment (ILI) is in the process of lodging its final planning applications for its project that takes advantage of generous subsidy payments usually set aside for small-scale renewable schemes.

The firm, based in Hamilton, has claimed planning consent for the individual turbines will be achieved "within months, rather than years" given the size of turbines being proposed require less scrutiny than those used in industrial wind farms.

Claims made by some residents in Argyll that what the developers are doing is "subsidy chasing" have been refuted by the firm.

But concern has been raised by Labour MSP Graeme Pearson over the level of public money that could be paid out to such developments under the Feed-In-Tariff (FiT) mechanism which was devised to promote non-com-mercial green energy production at homes, schools, farms and industrial sites.

Mr Pearson said: "This reflects that kind of venture capital opportunity where significant returns are being achieved at public expense. It is a good example of some of the issues that concern me about renewables."

On the question of a total subsidy figure, Mark Wilson, of ILI, said not all wind turbines would gain planning permission and each turbine would produce a different level of electricity given its location.

However, calculations show each 225-kilowatt turbine proposed would generate around £86,231 a year in subsidy, based on the assumption it would produce electricity at 25% of its capacity. The 500kw turbines would generate around £190,000 under the FiT scheme.

ILI, which is one of a number of companies using the FiT mechanism, wants to build 175 smaller turbines and 75 of the larger models. Landowners will be paid around £20,000 to have the equipment on their property with ILI's development partners pocketing the lion's share of the subsidy.

Mr Wilson said the turbines will create jobs and generate vital income for farmers and rural economies which have struggled to prosper in recent times.

Argyll and Bute Council is cur-rently dealing with 26 separate applications from ILI with councillors recently receiving a briefing on the influx of applications. A spokeswoman said the overall cumulative impact of the individual turbines would be considered by planners and the turbines would not be considered on a stand-alone basis. It has also been indicated the rural location for some of the turbines would make transmission of electricity to the National Grid problematic.

Mr Wilson said the wind tur-bine drive was to "create an addi- tional and long-term cast stream for the farmer". "What we have been able to offer them is a way to make a turbine work for them without any of the risk or outlay. We are working with 250 landowners so you have to ask how many people are benefiting."

The Department of Energy and Climate Change is in the process of reviewing the amounts paid out under the FiT scheme given the high costs of subsidies paid to renewables projects.

Niall Stuart, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said: "Local authorities quite rightly make decisions on individual turbine application on their merits, and only those proposals that meet the necessary criteria are allowed to proceed. Likewise, they will only generate revenues if they can be connected to the Grid."

[north beachmore]

And to confirm, ILI are not about the best environmental return but only about the best financial return..

[Sheik Yir Erse]

And there you have it, and that's exactly what bothers me about most of the Wind Turbine debate - I wish people would really just be honest. It's about money - pure and simple. Is it really a shock that a company is out to make the best financial return????

There have been plenty of comments on various threads about people making money from turbines, whether it be landowners, companies like ILI, and there is scorn poured upon them. Yet the other forms of energy generation are not met with the same balanced arguments. God forbid a neighbour might be making some money from energy production - that really should be the domain of faceless multi-nationals and not someone you know.

Kintyre is particularly lucky that it hasn't had the other forms of energy generation foisted upon it over the years - there is no Torness, Longanett, or Inverkip dominating the landscape. There are no massive open cast mines scarring the landscape like there are at Mainshill Wood or Dunstonhill. There are no biomass plants. And thank god there are no Lanfill Gas power stations like there are at Greengairs. You would never want to be a tourists going to Greengairs, there are no unsightly blots on the landscape, it just stinks to high-heaven, 24/7!

There are power stations in Stornoway, South Uist, Shetland, Caithness, Dumfries and Galloway so they're not restricted to the "industrial wasteland" of the Central Belt

For the record, and this may surprise you all, I don't believe that Wind Turbines are the answer - they are simply a part of the energy production mix, which Kintyre had managed to avoid for a long time. I simply like people to apply the same indignation equally to all forms of power generation, environmental impact or subsidy. Oh, and I too signed the petition against Machrihanish Bay!

I think I made my point in the other threads that no-one from Glenbarr saw fit to join the forum and comment on the Machrihanish thread when it was at it's peak, however as soon as something happens around that area there's a plethora of new users. Interestingly few people from Machrihanish seems to be bothered about what's happening at Glenbarr (with the early exception of Jowett63) not sure if there's many people from Carradale commenting either, or Southend for that matter? I would hazard a guess that most of the mobilised clique of Glenbarr protesters live within a very close proximity.

So please don't try and dress this protesting up as concern for tourist industry, worry about subsidies, concern for environmental impact and all that nonsense. If you said to every resident in Glenbarr "by the way, we're going to put a windfarm next to you and pay your household £100,000 per year for the inconvenience" there would be a lot less concern expressed for the plight of the tourist industry, the subsidies paid, how inefficient turbines are or the noise.

If you consume electricity you eventually have to pay the piper, the debt has been long overdue, and the payment could be a helluva lot worse than looking at turbines rotating on a hill.

You'll be delighted to know that's I'll say no more on the matter, and let you get back to your one-sided arguments. It was starting to get a bit personal.

[WC1]

I fully accept that if you want electricity you have to pay for it. The problem is that in order to pay for renewables (which at present basically means wind turbines) you are eventually going to pay, according to recently published estimates, about 58% above the rate you would otherwise have been paying. What sticks in my craw, apart from the fact that I can't afford to pay 58% on top of my existing bills, is the fact that much of that 58% surcharge isn't going into the actual cost of building these things but into the pockets of private individuals. And destroying precious landscapes in the process, landscapes which are the raw material for other economic activities of greater community benefit.

The fact that these b****y things are inefficient IS relevant, because that means we're actually building them to little effect. Unless we replace Longannet at the end of its designed lifespan (a period we've already exceeded) wind turbines won't keep the lights on for us. Put it another way, we're giving private individuals all that dosh and we still won't be able to rely on anything happening when we press that light switch.

[argylltourist]

I am so disapointed that some posters have accused new visitors from Glenbarr and surrounds of only becoming

interested in this debate recently. As has been pointed out before, when an issue concerns someone enough to

make their views known on a public forum, those views should be encouraged.

Many in Kintyre were concerned about the Machrihanish windfarm proposal , but not all of them joined this forum,

so why we are singled out is a mystery.

[WC1]

I agree. It is perfectly possible that people from the Glenbarr area (and other parts of Kintyre) were following the Machrihanish thread, but felt there were sufficient cogent and well-argued posts from others on there that there was no need for then to chip in their tuppence worth.

[democat101]

Lone turbines spark ‘feeding frenzy’ for taxpayer handouts Scotsman 31st March 2012

http://www.scotsman.com/news/lone-turbi ... -1-2208230
By JENNY FYALL
Published on Saturday 31 March 2012 01:27

HUNDREDS of single wind farm turbine applications are being lodged in Scotland in a “feeding frenzy” for subsidies, which are at risk of escaping proper scrutiny in the planning system, experts have warned.

Councils across the country have been inundated with applications for single turbines up to 80 metres tall, which qualify for government subsidies that can net landowners profits of about £20,000 a year.

Farmers across Scotland are being approached by development companies who help install the turbine and deal with the planning process in return for a share of the subsidies.

However, experts have warned that these applications do not require the same level of scrutiny by local authorities as larger developments, with no need for detailed environmental impact assessments.

But when large numbers of applications are lodged for sites close together, the impact can be the same as a large wind farm.

• The Feed in Tarrifs subsidy system explained

Colin Anderson, managing director of Banks Renewables, thinks single-turbine applications should be given the same level of scrutiny as larger projects, which can take years to go through the planning system.

He described the current situation as a “feeding frenzy” for subsidies.

He said: “With the smaller-scale turbines it’s much more difficult for local authorities to resist them. They tend to fall as minor applications that fall under delegated powers.

“The level of information required to support a minor application is relatively modest and an assessment of cumulative impact wouldn’t necessarily be required as part of an application. I don’t think it’s good for Scotland. There should be the same level of control for these turbines as for larger projects.”

Single turbines up to five megawatts qualify for subsidy under the Feed In Tariff subsidy system, with a guaranteed income for 20 years. The amount that can be made by landowners works out as about double that given to larger projects, which fall under the Renewables Obligation subsidy system.

Mr Anderson does not think this represents good value for money for the taxpayer. “At the end of the day we have got to get bang out of our buck,” he said.

Areas that have seen particularly large numbers of single-turbine applications include the Kintyre Peninsular, parts of South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire and Fife.

Gordon Watson, executive director of planning for Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority, was concerned when about a dozen applications for single turbines were lodged with Stirling Council for farms in an area on the outskirts of the national park known as the Carse of Stirling.

He said: “Companies were approaching landowners to put up a single turbines. Despite being single turbines, they were still quite big.

“A number of farms adjacent to each other had all been approached at the same time and there was a flurry of applications. The thing that’s difficult is the issue of cumulative impact if they were all granted permission..”

One company, Hamilton-based Intelligent Land Investments, which has said it aims to build 250 single turbines across Scotland in partnership with farmers, has used its website to point out that the planning process for large-scale wind-farms can be “extremely costly and lengthy” but that single turbines up to 80m “fall within consent levels and require less environmental impact reporting. As such planning can be expected to be granted within months, rather than years.”

[argylltourist]

http://wzeu.ask.com/r?t=p&d=eu&s=uk&c=a ... nvestments

I'm not quite comfortable with these investment companies slinking about Scotland.

It's the "quick buck" part that is concerning. Despite their "sincerity" I cannot envisage them being around

long enough to decommision any old turbines. Picture the scene years in the future and hundreds of rusting

hulks adorning the landscape....very worrying.

[Aquarian]

Hi everyone. I am new to the Forum and to be honest only found out about it due to the application for the wind turbines in Glenbarr. I have been following all these discussions on the Forum since then but did not feel knowledgable enough to reply, it certainly was not that I did not care about what was going on. The thought of all these wind farms springing up all over Kintyre and in our own beautiful glen is heart breaking. Perhaps we could set up a committe or something so we could get organised against these companies. I would welcome your ideas.

[mankind]

Hi everyone. I am new to the Forum and to be honest only found out about it due to the application for the wind turbines in Glenbarr. I have been following all these discussions on the Forum since then but did not feel knowledgable enough to reply, it certainly was not that I did not care about what was going on. The thought of all these wind farms springing up all over Kintyre and in our own beautiful glen is heart breaking. Perhaps we could set up a committe or something so we could get organised against these companies. I would welcome your ideas.

I applaud all that you say, Aquarian, and would certainly give my fullest support to your suggestion of setting up a "committee or something so we could get organised against these companies". I believe that forming a group would be more succesful than fighting individually against this threat to our homes and lives.