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FAIRWIND
NEWS, 12th February 2006
Wind
Energy are back
Wind Energy, the same
company which threatened us with 500 turbines a couple of years
ago, have signed an agreement with the Ardtornish Estate to develop
a wind factory. We understand that they have the sole option to
develop a 60 MW wind farm in the White Glen behind Ullien, with
twenty or more turbines. This is a separate project from the one
proposed for Glensanda (the anemometer for which Wind Energy Ltd
has temporary planning permission has not yet been erected).
A bird survey is being done now - the plan for a windfarm by Dervaig
on Mull was halted because of the danger to birds.
A grid connection is
still an unknown quantity and will decide the financial viability
of the project. A wind farm of this size will mean an extensive
grid upgrade because the present one is inadequate. The meeting
heard that two options are being discussed: one across Loch Linnhe
then south to the Cruachan Power Station, the other along the present
line via Glensanda with an upgrade to Fort Augustus and then on
to the Beauly -Denny line, which is currently being hard-fought.
Everyone in the Peninsula should be aware that any upgrade of the
grid into Morvern would open the floodgates for more wind farms.
Fairwind will monitor
all planning applications that are lodged with the council and will
publicise any applications that appear, including anemometers. If
you do not want this windfarm development to happen, then when planning
permission goes in for even one anemometer, you must object to the
council. Nothing has changed in our view as far as large wind farms
are concerned, and don't believe the propaganda, this will be a
large one - on Morvern and Ardnamurchan such developments will devastate
the ecology, environment and tourist-based economy of the area.
FAIRWIND
NEWS, 17th August 2005
The Scottish Executive lowers production targets for renewable energy
An article on July 31st
in Scotland on Sunday (click
here) says that the Scottish Executive has lowered
the production targets for renewable energy in Scotland. It also
says that speculative development is now slowing since new rules
for grid connection have been introduced (developers now have to
pay up front for connection). More consideration is to be given
to environmental impact, with new guidelines to avoid the 'cumulative
impact' of wind factories. Even Brian Wilson, not knwon for his
opposition to wind factories, says that the proposals are 'more
realistic'. Worth a read - see
it here ....
A report by the Forum for Renewable Energy in Scotland (FREDS),
a Scottish Executive sub-group, which can be seen by
clicking here , goes into technical detail on
the target changes and also confirms that developers are pulling
out of speculative ventures because of the revised rules for applying
for grid capacity.
FAIRWIND
NEWS, 14th April 2005
Fairwind presentation to the Highland Council
Renewable Energy Strategy
The Scottish Executive have no policy whatsoever when it
comes to the proliferation of wind factories. This is due to nonsensical
targets for renewable energy being imposed by Westminster on an
obedient Holyrood.
The Highland Council, overwhelmed by the rush for wind by greedy
developers, has set up a Renewable Energy Strategy group which is
aimed at producing a sensible policy for the Highlands, before all
our countryside is destroyed.
A consultation exercise was carried out in Inverness on April 13th.
Fairwind made a ten-minute presentation with particular relevance
to our remote area, the damage that would be caused to tourism and
the upheaval and disturbance that would be caused by the building
of a vast factory.
A total of sixteen presentations were made to the Group, only one
of which was a developer (Falck, an Italian company pretending to
be British), whose main point was that up to 150 or so jobs would
be created if every application currently proposed was installed.
He had no answer when it was pointed out that Visit Scotland's own
survey said that 6,250 tourist-related jobs would be lost at the
same time.
Of the rest, no-one supported the profliferation of vast wind factories
as the sole way forward, and indeed Campbell Dunford of the Renewable
Energy Foundation produced a devastating analysis of the whole fraudulent
rush-for-wind before the Renewable Obligation Certificates are redesigned.
Worth looking at
their website and downloading the manifesto, which is a reasoned
analysis of the whole renewables arena.
We really hope that at
last some sense is dawning on the wind farm fiasco.
FAIRWIND NEWS, MARCH 2005
Wind Energy have not gone away
A public meeting of Fairwind was told recently, by an unimpeachable
source, that we should expect to see people working on behalf of
Wind Energy Limited on our hills this season. We can only deduce
that Wind Energy have still not given up on their greedy quest to
ruin our hills and we will be looking out for them.
The one anemometer, in Glen Sanda, that was allowed in June 2004
has not yet been installed, and Wind Energy have therefore lost
nine months of wind readings.
To date (May25th) there have been no further planning applications
in our area, but we monitor them closely.
FAIRWIND
NEWS, June 21st 2004
PLANNING MEETING, ANEMOMETERS - the
first battle is won, but the war isn't over yet.
There was a well-attended meeting of the Highland Council Planning
Committee in Fort William on June 21st to consider the proposals
for five anemometers to be installed in various locations in Ardnamurchan
and Morvern. A sixth application had already been withdrawn. After
a well-informed debate, the planning committee voted by five to
two to reject four of the five applications.
Councillors said that to discuss an anemometer application
without being allowed to consider the fact that a proposed wind
farm was mentioned in the planning application was bizarre.
The application for an anemometer to be positioned
in Glen Sanda, which is already despoiled by the biggest super-quarry
in Europe and an ugly hydro-scheme, was passed with provisions as
to its physical installation and the time it is permitted to be
in place (two years only), as well as a condition that this permission
was in no way to be construed as approval for any future windfarm
applications.
The developers can appeal against this decision, so we may still
have a fight on our hands, but this news is a victory for democracy
and sound common sense.
REASONS FOR REFUSAL ... Drew Macfarlane
Slack, the area planning committee chairman, was quoted in the Scotsman
on June 2nd: "The discussion had to be about these masts as
opposed to wind turbines, as we do not have any applications for
wind turbines yet. While everyone reflected on the potential of
windfarm applications coming in the future the refusal of the four
masts was based on visual intrusion of the masts per se and
the damage that access roads may cause to the environment."
WIND ENERGY LTD DENIED IN A NEWS REPORT
that a 500-turbine development had ever been mentioned as a possibility,
despite the fact that it was minuted at several local council meetings.
WIND ENERGY'S MARK SHORROCK is no longer Chief Executive
but remains a director of the company, according to the Sunday Telegraph
on June 20th 2004.
THE ANEMOMETERS ARE FOR A HYPOTHETICAL WINDFARM ...
Wind Energy's new chief executive, Mike Davies, was quoted in the
Scotsman on June 22nd as saying that "We are very disappointed
that the councillors appeared to be swayed by arguments about a
hypothetical wind farm for which no plans currently exist."
PETITIONS
Fairwind has now collected over 2000 signatures (April 2005)
on our petition to the Scottish Parliament to keep our area free
of large-scale commercial windfarms. Only 6% of people approached
declined to sign. Signatures are still coming in from shops, B&Bs,
hotels and pubs all over the peninsula.
If you can't sign a paper one, you can sign an online version by
clicking
here.
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