Beauly–Denny power line upgrade given go-ahead. ∞
Over a year after the public enquiry, it has been announced that the controversial upgrade to the Beauly—Denny transmission line has been given the go ahead. (BBC News article)
I want to state that am in favour of this decision, as it means that the north of Scotland can further develop the available renewable energy resource, and export this to centres of population in the South. And I don’t specifically mean England by this. If we do not dramatically cut our energy requirements, and Scotland is going to be nuclear free, as the SNP wish, then we need to get on and build a lot more power generating capacity, and fast.
I would argue that most of this resource is around the coastline, in tidal stream, wave power, and offshore wind. There are difficulties to be overcome with offshore site, but we have used up a lot of the ‘easy’ land-based wind sites already.
As for the detractors of the pylons, I question how much they have cut their own personal energy requirements. I don’t mean to preach, as I know I haven’t cut mine as much as I could/should, but if you want electricity on demand in your house (especially for that new Hi-def plasma TV), you need to allow the infrastructure to be built across the country.
A subset of these people claim the power lines should not be allowed to pass through the Cairngorms National Park. What is not always mentioned is that the route passes through a small corner of the Park, and anyway, it isn’t as though it is cutting across pristine land. There are already power lines there, not to mention the forestry plantations, roads, railway line, and the dual carriageway A9 along a significant section of the route.
Speaking of which, I haven’t seen a big environmental uproar against the plans to dual the A9 over the full length from Perth to Inverness, which would surely have as big an impact on the environment.
There is no true wilderness left in Scotland, but if you chose to walk a bit off the beaten track, you can still find areas where you can look in all directions and not see a single man-made structure. Not wilderness, as mankind has altered the landscape beyond all recognition over the past millennia, not least the felling of the great Caledonian Pine forests that covered this country.
It remains to be seen whether this power line can be constructed with minimal environmental impact. I fear that all the money that should have been spent on doing it right has been eaten up with the public enquiry, and the shareholders of this private company will seek to ‘do it on the cheap’. This will of course no doubt prove the anti-pylon lobby right, somehow!