Planning permission for 47 onshore wind farms in Scotland could be lost unless “a political ban on their access to the energy market is lifted”, research by Scottish Renewables has suggested.
In a 1 November press release, the industry body said the wind farms identified would increase Scotland’s renewable energy capacity by almost 15% and could power the equivalent of 850,000 homes.
Scottish Renewables argues that planning for the 47 projects was obtained during the period of the UK Government’s “onshore wind moratorium” and will begin to expire from spring 2020. The difficulty in establishing onshore wind projects might not exist if the UK Government had not excluded onshore wind from participating in the Contracts for Difference (CfD) Auction Round 2 in 2017 and CfD Auction Round 3 this year.
The research also found that CS Wind, the UK’s only wind turbine tower manufacturer, may need to cut three-quarters of its Argyll workforce due to the poor market conditions.
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