Rob Edwards

Ministers ‘botch’ red tape rules for home renewables

from Sunday Herald, 31 January 2010

Botched attempts by Scottish ministers to cut the red tape that is preventing people from fitting clean, green technologies in their homes have descended into chaos.

The Scottish government will this week complete consultations on plans that put barriers in the way of energy-saving heat pumps and small wind turbines. But - amidst a welter of bureaucratic confusion - it will then launch contradictory proposals to remove the barriers.

Ministers have been accused of making a “shambles” out of a crucial initiative to cut climate pollution and heating bills. According to opposition politicians, they have managed to make a U-turn within a matter of days.

Heat pumps which work like fridges in reverse, extract heat from the outside air and use it to warm buildings. Though they cost more to install than gas boilers, they are cheaper to run and cause less pollution.

Disturbing split within green groups over power line

from Sunday Herald, 10 January 2010

The bitter five-year battle over whether or not to string giant pylons 137 miles down Scotland’s spine has ended with a split in the environmental movement like no other.

On one side are those who care passionately about wild land and protecting the country’s stunningly beautiful landscapes. They include Ramblers Scotland, the John Muir Trust and the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland.

On the other are those who strongly believe the sacrifice is essential to give the nation a clean, safe and climate-friendly energy future. They include Friends of the Earth Scotland, WWF Scotland and the Scottish Green Party.

The fractures between these groups have been visible for some time, particularly in the sometimes heated arguments over wind farms. But the intense dispute over the new power line from Beauly, west of Inverness, to Denny, west of Falkirk, has blown the cracks wide open, with disturbing implications.

The environmental movement in Scotland may never be quite the same again. These are, after all, groups that in the past have formed powerful joint alliances, successfully opposing the proposed superquarry on the isle of Harris and highlighting the fatal flaws of the Cairngorm mountain railway.

Study prompts new cancer fears from pylons

from Sunday Herald, 29 November 2009

A new study suggesting that children living near high voltage power lines suffer an increased risk of cancers has re-ignited fears about the dangers of building a new chain of pylons across Scotland.

Health researchers in Japan found that children exposed to high levels of electromagnetic radiation from power lines were 11 times more likely to develop brain tumours.

This means, claim campaigners, that the health of hundreds of people will be jeopardised by the proposal to erect a new 400,000 volt electricity transmission line between Beauly, near Inverness, and Denny, near Stirling. The line should be buried underground to make it safe, they say.

The Sunday Herald reported last month that the controversial Beauly Denny line would be given the go-ahead by the Scottish government. Ministers, under fierce pressure from the electricity industry, have promised to make an announcement before the end of the year.

But now the Japanese study has raised new doubts about the safety of living  close to pylons. Scientists from the National Research Institute for Child Health and Development in Tokyo and 14 other health bodies found an 11-fold increase in brain tumours amongst children under 15 exposed to more than 0.4 microteslas of electromagnetic radiation.

New move to protect golden eagles

from Sunday Herald, 29 November 2009

Golden eagles, one of Scotland most iconic birds, are going to be given greater protection against persecution and disturbance, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

On Tuesday the environment minister, Roseanna Cunningham, is expected to announce proposals to create six large new ‘special protection areas’ for eagles in northern and western Scotland.

This will give the government more powers to help prevent the soaring birds of prey from being poisoned or shot by game keepers. It will also encourage landowners to site potentially damaging developments like wind farms more carefully.

“Scotland is an internationally important stronghold for the golden eagle but their future is finely balanced due to their need for large, undisturbed spaces in which to live,” said Cunningham.

“We are keen to find a balance between access, conservation and development to ensure that all sectors can benefit from and enjoy the countryside.”

Renewables fund under fire for missing out Scotland

from Sunday Herald, 04 October 2009

A £50 million fund set up by the UK government to help develop wave and tidal power has come under fire for failing to fund any Scottish companies. 

The only company to receive a grant so far has been a tidal generation firm based in Bristol, one of whose backers, Rolls Royce, helps run the organisation which gives out the grants.

The situation has infuriated the renewable energy industry in Scotland, which points out that most of the wave and tidal resource is around Scottish shores. And it has been attacked as “pretty dodgy” by the Scottish Greens.

The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) was established by the UK government in 2007 to boost clean sources of power. Based at Loughborough University, it is jointly run by government agencies and a group of major private companies including Rolls Royce, EDF Energy and E.ON.

Unmasked: the millionaire landowner set to make millions from wind farm

from Sunday Herald, 06 September 2009

A landowner worth £237 million with a chequered past is set to make a killing from hosting one of Scotland’s most controversial wind farms, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Christopher Moran, a self-made financier from London with links to the Conservative Party, owns the 40,000-acre Glenfiddich and Cabrach estate on Speyside south of Dufftown. A plan to build 59 wind turbines on the estate is due to be considered by Moray Council at the end of this month.

Moran has been reprimanded for business misconduct in the past, and his estate has one of the worst records for wildlife crime in Scotland. Yet now he stands to make more than £20 million from the wind farm over the next 25 years.

The revelation has provoked an angry response from national campaign groups and local residents. They accuse Moran of having “his nose deep in the renewables trough” and of neglecting his estate.

Moran hit the headlines in 2006, when it was reported that he was one of the donors to whom the Conservative party had returned millions of pounds in an attempt to keep their identities secret.

Row over Edinburgh ban on biomass boilers

Exclusive, 16 June 2009

The government’s targets to boost renewable energy and cut the pollution that is disrupting the climate are being jeopardised by a ban on wood-burning boilers in Edinburgh.

The renewable energy industry is accusing the city council, run by a coalition of LibDem and Scottish Nationalist councillors, of blocking plans for biomass boilers in schools, while similar developments are being given the go-ahead across the rest of the country.

Burning wood from Scotland’s forests is seen by the Nationalist government as a vital way to provide renewable heat to communities. It has set a target to deliver 11% of the nation’s heat energy from renewables by 2020, and supported 26 schemes around the country.

But the City of Edinburgh Council has rejected plans to install wood-burning plants to heat seven primary and high schools. This is despite the city’s ambition in 2006 to become the most environmentally friendly city in northern Europe.

Renewable research funding cut off by Scottish government

from Sunday Herald, 31 May 2009

Scottish ministers have come under fire for flying in the face of their commitment to climate-friendly renewable energy by cutting off funding for vital research.

Although wind, wave and tidal power companies in England and Wales can apply to the government’s Carbon Trust for research grants of up to £500,000, firms based in Scotland cannot. Money has run out because the Scottish government has refused to come up with the cash.

The revelation is embarrassing for ministers, who have often proclaimed their ambition to make Scotland “the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy”. And it has provoked scorn from political opponents.

“SNP ministers desperately try to look like they're funding clean technologies, but the money has run out and the commitment's simply not there,” said Green MSP Patrick Harvie.

Google plan for floating internet servers powered by the waves

from Sunday Herald, 17 May 2009

Imagine it. Every time you click on a Google search, your request is answered by huge banks of internet computers floating around Scotland’s coast, powered by the sea.

It may sound like science fiction, but it’s serious. The internet giant, Google, has filed a patent for boats packed full of mainframe servers, driven by electricity from wave power machines under development in Scotland.

And it’s just one of a raft of proposals by major companies which are set to make Scotland a global centre for the arrays of powerful computers that keep the internet going - and exploit the nation’s inexhaustible supplies of clean, renewable energy.

The rapid expansion of the internet, which is now accessed by 1.6 billion people across the world, is demanding ever more power. Despite the efficiency of computer “data centres” increasing by 30% a year, the total amount of electricity they demand is doubling every 5-8 years.

New tidal machines could replace nuclear power

from Sunday Herald, 19 April 2009

A unique tidal power machine being developed at Strathclyde University could produce enough electricity to replace both of Scotland’s ageing nuclear power stations.

Researchers say that 2,000 underwater turbines tethered to the seabed around the west and north coasts could generate a massive two gigawatts of power. That is more than enough to supply all Scotland’s base load electricity, and supplant power from the reactors at Hunterston in North Ayrshire and Torness in East Lothian.

With the right incentives a series of large tidal turbine farms could be in operation around the Scottish coast by the 2020s, researchers argue, enabling Hunterston and Torness to be closed down without power blackouts.

Renewables ‘disaster’ if power line not given go-ahead

from Sunday Herald, 08 March 2009

It will be a “disaster’ for green energy if ministers delay giving the go ahead to controversial plans to string electricity pylons across the Highlands, the renewables industry has warned.

The industry is putting mounting pressure on the Scottish government to permit the £320 million, 220-kilometre power line from Beauly, west of Inverness, to Denny, west of Falkirk, within the next few weeks.

But environmental groups have accused the industry of trying to frighten the government into making a hasty decision before the case for the new power line collapses.

The electricity companies, Scottish and Southern Energy and Scottish Power, applied for permission to upgrade the power line in September 2005. This prompted 17,000 objections and the biggest public inquiry since devolution.

Warning over wildlife risk from wave and tidal power

from Sunday Herald, 25 January 2009

Ministers’ plans for a major expansion of renewable energy into the seas around Scotland could threaten wildlife, according to the government’s nature conservation advisers.

In a report due out tomorrow, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) will highlight the risk of seabirds, seals, whales and sharks being killed by collisions with wave or tidal turbines.

The animals may have to be deliberately scared away by noise, SNH will suggest. Or renewable energy plants may have to be temporarily shut down, or removed altogether.

Scotland's biggest wind farm to get bigger

from Sunday Herald, 18 January 2009

Plans for a major expansion of Scotland’s biggest wind farm are to be unveiled this week by Scottish Power, with the aim of generating enough electricity for every home in Glasgow.

The Spanish-owned power company is to apply for permission to build 45 new wind turbines at Whitelee on Eaglesham moor, south of the city. Along with an extension planned earlier, this will bring the total number of turbines on the site to 221.

When built, the wind farm will supply 614 megawatts of “clean green electricity”, says Scottish Power. That is enough to power 340,000 households - 55,800 more than there are in the city of Glasgow. 

The eventual output will be nearly twice that originally envisaged. When the Whitelee wind farm was first given the go-ahead in 2006, it was for 140 turbines to generate 322 megawatts of electricity.

Wind turbines grow bigger and better

from New Scientist, 08 October 2008

Peter Hope’s job is to break the blades of wind turbines. Standing in a huge shed on the coast of north-east England, he describes how he uses a set of heavy-duty winches to bend them until they snap with a loud bang. He tests the designs to breaking point to ensure they can withstand the wildest gales. Once he tugged the tip of a 42.5-metre blade 11 metres off its axis - bending it by 15 degrees - before it failed. "We've broken every blade we've tested," he says

Hope is head of one of the world's most advanced turbine blade testing facilities, run by the UK New and Renewable Energy Centre (NaREC) in Blyth, near Newcastle. Next year he is looking forward to starting tests on what will be the longest blade yet made - a 75-metre monster being developed by the California wind power company Clipper, designed to generate 10 megawatts (MW) of electricity.

After that, the blades are likely to get even bigger. The European Union is funding research into 20-MW machines, which could have 130-metre blades. In theory blades could be larger still but economic factors and the practical problems of construction and installation will come into play long before that limit is reached.

The monster grass that could fuel Britain

from Sunday Herald, 31 August 2008

Planting Asian elephant grass across the Highlands could provide enough biofuel to drive every vehicle in Scotland and perhaps the UK, experts will tell a conference in Glasgow this week.

Monster Miscanthus grass, which grows up to four metres high, could be the ideal crop to grow on marginal land for conversion into liquid fuels, they say. Because it won’t compete with food crops, they claim it will avoid the environmental problems plaguing current biofuels.

Environmentalists, however, are concerned about the potential impacts on wildlife and the landscape. They also question whether making fuel for cars would be the best way of using energy crops like elephant grass.

Ministers under fire for dropping renewables commitment

from Sunday Herald, 24 August 2008

Ministers have come under attack for dumping a commitment to buy all the government’s electricity from clean renewable energy sources, and jeopardising targets to cut climate pollution.

Labour’s environment spokesperson, Sarah Boyack MSP, has accused the Scottish government of damaging the vital renewables industry by abandoning a requirement for public sector electricity to be generated by hydro, wind or other forms of renewable power.

Concern has also been expressed by the renewable energy industry and environmental groups. The Scottish government, however, argued that its new electricity contract was aiming to save taxpayers’ money.

Ban on building wind farms on peat bogs is 'bad science'

from Sunday Herald, 06 July 2006

A high-profile campaign to ban wind farms from peat bogs has come under sustained attack in the wake of new scientific evidence on climate pollution.

The Scottish Conservative MEP, Struan Stevenson, has been campaigning for a moratorium on wind developments on peatlands. Damaging the peat causes the release of more carbon dioxide than wind farms save, he alleges.

But Stevenson’s claims have now been called into question by an expert report published by the Scottish government. And he has been accused of “bad science” by the wind industry and “showboating” by a fellow MEP - accusations he dismisses as “fatuous”.

One year on, how green is the SNP?

from Sunday Herald, 27 April 2008

The SNP grew up on oil, is wedded to economic expansion and always wants to put Scotland first. As a political party, it has never developed a coherent theoretical approach to one of the defining issues of the age: the environment.

It comes as some surprise then, that after a year in power, the SNP has won warm plaudits from many environmentalists. There are still major reservations, of course, but most observers outside political parties seem to think that the SNP is doing a better job than its predecessors in government.

The councils failing to encourage renewables

from Sunday Herald, 24 February 2008

Plans to cut climate pollution by boosting the use of renewable energy in new building developments are being thwarted because most local authorities are failing to follow government planning guidelines.

A survey has revealed that 60% of Scottish councils have no policy to encourage solar, wind and other clean technologies in new homes and offices - despite being asked a year ago by ministers to introduce one.

This could mean that major flagship developments in the pipeline could be deprived of vital energy-saving measures. They include the Commonwealth games village in Glasgow, as well as new towns planned for Ravenscraig and near Inverness.

Scotland's renewable energy policy a 'poisonous guddle'

from Sunday Herald, 24 February 2008

Almost everyone involved in the “poisonous guddle” that is Scotland’s renewable energy policy has come under blistering attack from a leading Scottish Nationalist, who is calling on the government to draw up a new national energy plan.

Alyn Smith MEP, the SNP’s spokesman on Europe, has launched a fierce assault on developers, environmental groups, government agencies and politicians for the way they have dealt with wind farm applications. As a result, he warned, Scotland is at risk of losing the “glittering prize” of becoming Europe’s green powerhouse.