A new group, Save Our Hills, has been launched to "mount a nationwide appeal to bring together communities fed up with large-scale windfarm developments in their local area".
In order to correct perceptions around rural Scotland and onshore wind SR has issued the following statement:
Claire Mack, Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables, said:
"Any suggestion that people living in rural Scotland do not support the deployment of renewable energy technologies, like onshore wind, which tackle climate change at the lowest cost to consumers is simply incorrect.
"The latest UK Government figures show that only 10% of Scots are opposed to the development of onshore wind, and it is misleading to suggest otherwise.
"The UK Government's data are supported by further research, carried out specifically in rural Scotland, which additionally showed higher support for onshore wind power among young people. That is particularly important in light of The Scottish Government's confirmation that our robust planning system will now be driven by the overarching goal of addressing climate change'.
"Renewables now provide the equivalent of 90% of Scotland's electricity consumption, with onshore wind delivering the bulk of that power, employing 5,400 people across the country and supporting a thriving supply chain of businesses from the central belt to the Borders, Highlands and Islands.
"Rural Scotland has a central role to play in delivering the increases in generation capacity needed to meet our growing need for clean power and our statutory climate change targets, and can look forward to the significant economic and social benefits which will increasingly come from doing so."
Background
- UK Government figures on support for onshore wind from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's Public Attitudes Tracker.
- Polling of Scottish adults aged 16+ living in the Highlands and Islands, South Scotland, Mid Scotland and Fife, West Scotland and North East Scotland Scottish Parliamentary regions was carried out online by Survation between September 28 and October 2, 2018. Results available here.
- Figures on amount of power supplied by renewables from The Scottish Government's Scottish Energy Statistics Hub.
- Employment statistics from the Office of National Statistics' Low carbon and renewable energy economy indirect estimates
- The Scottish Government's latest view on planning is available in its Fourth National Planning Framework: position statement.
- Courier media coverage on this, shown in the image at the start of this article, is available online.
