Our Press Release - 23rd August 2023

 PRESS RELEASE

COMMUNITIES B4 POWER COMPANIES RESPONDS TO SCOTTISH RENEWABLES CALL FOR MORE MEGA TRANSMISSION INFRASTRUCTURE.  

The hot air blowing from Scottish Renewables in their latest press release was sufficient to keep the entire Scottish wind fleet operational when the weather can’t.

In a public statement that is full of praise for it its own paying members’ money driven agenda the trade association reeled off their own ‘reasons’ for Scottish communities to roll over and allow the mass industrialisation of their environment, iconic landscapes and prime agricultural land in order to produce yet more wind energy that is simply not needed in Scotland.

Scotland’s estimated peak winter demand for electricity in the winter in 2042 is 9GW. We have that and more from wind energy alone now without any other form of generation. We also have enough transmission for what we need with some minor upgrades to the existing networks. The wind industry is proposing around eight times that amount to be produced in Scotland. It is that gross scale of over provision that is, in turn, driving the explosion of transmission applications.

This is not about Scotland. This is about export to England and beyond. This is about trashing our world celebrated stunning country for others and encouraging private companies, answerable only to their shareholders, to come over the welcome mat set before them by our misguided government.

As more and more wind energy is loaded onto the grid the constraints to turn turbines off increases.

The current amount loaded onto consumers’ bills is, at 15th August 2023, £1,426,871,724*. This does not include the Forward Energy Trades** that, in 2011, were running parallel with the now £1.4b in the public domain. Efforts to establish that figure today have not been successful and we can only hope they are still not running parallel.

Mr Sharpe, Director of Communications and Strategy at Scottish Renewables, refers to ‘cheap renewable generation’- a mantra that suits the purposes of the trade association when trying to justify the destruction of Scotland for the profit of its members.

Mr Sharpe rather patronisingly refers to those against these massive grid upgrades for customers outwith Scotland as being concerned about their ‘view’. He is wrong. The majority of those joining Communities B4 Power Companies see the bigger picture and it is not good.

England’s grid cannot take any more wind power and probably won’t for a decade. By adding more to an upgraded grid in Scotland doesn’t solve that. Constraints will rise because the bottleneck at England’s grid with increase. Consumers will suffer on their bills. England has its own offshore wind program, nuclear and subsea to Morocco. Will they even need more Scottish wind? Will we be left with a network of massive pylons, substations, transmission lines and thousands of turbines with nowhere for this energy to flow to?

Will the industry care as they are paid handsomely to simply switch off?

Are constraints the new subsidy?

Wind energy is linked to the price of gas. The wind operators have massively benefited from the volatile prices. When wind fails and reliable generation is asked to fill the void we have been paying some extraordinary costs just to keep the lights on - £4000+MWh. That is NOT cheap electricity and should be added to the costs (and emissions) of the regularly parroted figures for wind by the industry and government.

Despite saying ‘it’s time to be upfront and honest’ nowhere does Mr Sharpe address the concerns of the true environmentalists fighting against the industrialisation of our natural places by  SSEN’s intended concrete and steel road show and the thousands more onshore and offshore wind turbine feeding frenzy that will surely follow.

Nor does Mr Sharpe tell us this will ‘be it’ and even SSEN refused to say at a public meeting this would be the last of the pylon lines to devastate our country for others.

Nor does Mr Sharpe offer any data to give evidence of need for the devastation he is seemingly happy to unleash on Scotland and its rural communities.

Nor has SSEN, three quarters owned by SSE and probably the most successful and biggest wind developer in Scotland, given Communities B4 Power Companies the proof of need we have repeatedly and officially asked for. That request is also with the Scottish government and Ofgem.

Mr Sharpe says: ‘The UK’s electricity network is not fit for purpose’. Communities B4 Power Companies says: ‘The UK’s energy policy is not fit for purpose’.

It is time for us to protect the environment against ruthless wealthy multinationals and demand our elected representatives stand by their communities and not private companies.

This is a political hot potato and Communities B4 Power Companies will continue to demand irrefutable evidence of need and stand up for communities who are simply being dismissed as irrelevant by those who are intent on plundering Scotland for profit.

Spokeswoman Lyndsey Ward for Communities B4 power Companies says:

‘The beads for the natives that are ‘offered’ as compensation for living with a destroyed environment are scorned by those who are deeply affected and by true environmentalists who understand that the destruction of habitats and wildlife by industrialisation using Chinese coal produced steel to encourage yet more onshore wind development is neither going to save the planet or give us cheap electricity or security. We cannot continue to ignore the exploitation of people overseas to fulfil this ‘green’ agenda. We DO need to be ‘upfront and honest’ about how this extreme virtue signalling is impacting others here and elsewhere.

As more wind is deployed even higher energy bills are forthcoming  – not just here but across every nation that has been hoodwinked into filling the coffers of ‘renewable’ Big Energy. We should be looking at more localised energy, insulation in our homes and reducing consumption to protect the environment and consumers. We demand evidence of need for these grid upgrades otherwise we are simply just swapping one dirty industry for another and attempting to cover it in a green cloak of decit’.

* https://www.ref.org.uk/constraints/?tab=mt&yr=all

** https://www.ref.org.uk/press-releases/249-ref-calls-for-transparency-over-secret-wind-power-constraint-payments



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23rd August 2023

Contact: Communities B4 power Companies Spokeswoman Lyndsey Ward