Rob Edwards

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.

Wind farms in Scotland face prolonged delays

from Sunday Herald, 20 January 2008

Plans for more than 3,000 new wind turbines across Scotland are facing prolonged delays because the planning system is log-jammed, undermining ministers’ efforts to cut the pollution that is wrecking the climate.

An investigation by the Sunday Herald has revealed that frustrated developers are waiting an average of 33 months to get decisions on big wind farms from the Scottish government, and 20 months for decisions on smaller projects from local authorities.

The amount of electricity that would be generated by the 153 wind farms currently held up in the planning queue is enough to provide 60% of all Scotland’s power, and could easily replace the nation’s nuclear power stations at Hunterston in North Ayrshire and Torness in East Lothian.

Semiconductor uses the sun to split water

from New Scientist, 08 October 2007

Using hydrogen to power vehicles could free us from our reliance on fossil fuels, and water is its obvious source, but how to get one from the other? Now a semiconductor has been discovered that uses energy from sunlight to do this efficiently.

Hydro schemes provoke opposition

from Sunday Herald, 16 September 2007

Plans for seven new hydro-electric schemes across Scotland have provoked opposition from anglers, environmentalists and local people alarmed at the risks for wildlife.

The conflicts highlight the problems plaguing the expansion of renewable energy, and could make it more difficult for the Scottish Government to combat global warming by boosting clean supplies of power.

Public inquiry into power line plan ‘a charade’

from Sunday Herald, 29 April 2007

The public inquiry into controversial plans to string electricity pylons across the Highlands has been condemned as a "charade" by a former ministerial advisor, prompting calls for it to be abandoned.

Roger Crofts, who was chief executive of the conservation agency Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) for ten years, has launched a fierce attack on the Scottish Executive for prejudicing the outcome of the inquiry.

Edinburgh insists on renewables in new developments

08 October 2006

Every major development in Edinburgh will have to supply at least 10% of its power from wind, solar or other renewable energy sources under a plan agreed by the city council.

Executive to challenge regulator on renewables

from Sunday Herald, 17 September 2006

The UK electricity regulator, Ofgem, is to be confronted by the Scottish Executive this week for failing to reform its "unfair" charges for renewables.