UK government unfriendly towards Scottish renewable energy projects
Posted on: August 27th, 2008 by David Humphries
UK government unfriendly towards Scottish renewable energy projects
Scottish people feel that UK ministers aren’t displaying a favourable attitude towards developing renewable energy plants like the 300MW Viking Energy wind plant being considered for the Shetlands. Gordon Brown has been accused of neglecting renewable energy projects on the north border given the levying of steep transmission costs for installing generators in far-flung parts of Scotland.
Scotland’s government is also unhappy with Ofgem’s lack of interest in lowering the huge costs being thrust upon energy companies that are linked to the grid in Scotland. Mike Weir, an MP with the nationalist party of Scotland accused UK ministers of being unfriendly towards renewable energy projects in Scotland. While the expectation was that the government would be gung ho about these new ventures, the levying of terribly high transmission tariffs indicates the opposite and therefore shows the government’s lack of seriousness to reduce carbon emissions. This observation followed the announcement made by UK ministers in the last week of June that transmission costs for Scotand would not be reduced. Previously, it had been suggested that Shetland, Orkney and Western Isles would be considered under Section 185 of the 2004 Energy Act for a reconsidering of transmission costs.
However, the UK government reached the conclusion that this was not merited though some relief may be announced for a project in the Western Isles. Along with this announcement, the UK government shared study findings made by IPA Energy that while wind development experts considered the section 185 as a key player in the development of wind farm projects in Scotland, it was not of critical or vital importance.
Please visit www.ofgem.co.uk for more details
