It is Scotland-Landscapes view that onshore windfarms represent a massive threat to the Scottish landscape and environment. We’re deeply concerned about this issue. There are plans at various stages for scores of new windfarms consisting of hundreds of new massive turbines. The Scottish Government currently has an incredibly blinkered approach to onshore windfarms, and energy policy in general, and we believe they are getting it seriously wrong. With this in mind Scotland-Landscapes is adding its voice to the campaign against inappropriate onshore windfarm development.
It is our belief that Scotland’s landscape is its most precious asset and this is particularly so in the Highlands. There is undoubtedly a very significant inherent worth in wild, beautiful countryside that we cannot label with a price. The British Isles are now home to around 60 million people and the remaining land that is not populated, or otherwise significantly developed is valuable.
The tourist industry is vital to the Highland economy and it is the quality of the landscape and its wild beauty that is the main draw for the tourists. Turning wild hills and moorland into industrial sites highly visible from elevated ground throughout the Highlands denigrates the quality of the landscape and its “wildness” and will affect the appeal of the area to tourists.
We are not anti-development or wind farms per se, or renewable energy in general, though we find it hard to think of an onshore windfarm site in wild open country that could possibly be called appropriate. We believe strongly that the development of hydro across the highlands in the 20th century was a big mistake that has blighted far too many glens, for too little energy, and the windfarms are a repeat of this mistake. Scotland would be far better served by the reuse of current industrial sites or their surroundings for new more intensive producing power stations, whether these be nuclear or clean coal fired power stations. See an old blog post, “From Winter To Spring In Sutherland”, for more about this arguement with Glen Cassley west of Loch Shin as a prime example of a Highland glen ravaged by inappropriate and ineffective industrialisation.
Scotland-Landscapes will be using our GIS expertise to highlight windfarm location and visualisation issues in the future.
