Press Release
07 Jan 2010
The UK wind industry trade body today welcomed the Scottish Government’s decision to approve the Beauly-Denny power line as a vitally important step forward in delivering the UK’s 2020 renewable target.
Britain is committed to generated 15% of its electricity from renewables by the end of this decade. As the renewable contribution from heat and fuel are so low that up to half of this will have to come from electricity alone. Three-quarters of this green electricity capacity, some 34GW, is expected to come from wind (broadly 2/3 offshore and 1/3 onshore) with hydro, wave and tidal and solar contributing up to another 10GW.
BWEA Head of Grid Guy Nicholson said: “This is great news for the UK wind industry; it’s the first step in building a 21st century grid system capable of connecting decentralised green energy throughout the UK”.
Much of the existing electricity grid is old and at the end of its life, it services the wrong areas of the country leaving the windiest regions such as the North of Scotland with few grid connections. The new Beauly-Denny upgrade will replace the existing 132kV line, with a 400kV line. The 132kV transmission network in Scotland was built to connect new hydro generation after the Second World War and now needs to be upgraded to accommodate renewable energy generation.
The upgrade will provide immediate access for 1500 MW of onshore projects that are already in the advanced stages of planning and the first step of 2300 MW in delivery of 8,000MW of wind power as other grid reinforcements in the north of Scotland follow on. To deliver the 2020 targets other grid reinforcements are planned in other parts of Britain.
By providing access to the excellent renewable energy sources in the North of Scotland and subsequently on the Scottish Islands, the project will help deliver lower cost renewable energy.
Whilst it is important to consider the necessity and environmental impacts of any new electricity transmission line, the process of permitting the Beauly Denny line has been unnecessarily long, as it was first proposed in 2001.
The delay to the line has and will result in delays to renewable energy projects, reduced output from projects during the build and limits realisable reductions in UK emissions.
Beauly Denny also lays the foundations for the development of at least 1420MW of offshore wind, an additional 540MW of onshore wind and 750MW of wave and tidal and will stimulate further project development across the industry.
Nicholson added: “Whilst more grid upgrades will be required to achieve the UK’s carbon reduction targets, this important mile stone provides the green light for the development of a decentralised grid network, and allows the UK to continue to develop its world leading offshore wind, wave and tidal energy industries.”
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More info:
Charles Angling, Director of Communications 020 7901 3010/ 0774 002 3641 c.anglin@bwea.com
Notes to Editors:
BWEA is the trade and professional body for the UK wind and marine renewables industries. Formed in 1978, and with 548 corporate members, BWEA is the leading renewable energy trade association in the UK. Wind has been the world's fastest growing renewable energy source for the last seven years, and this trend is expected to continue with falling costs of wind energy and the urgent international need to tackle CO2 emissions to prevent climate change.
- Offshore: The Scottish Territorial Water 920MW Beatrice project is being developed by Airtiricity and SeaEnergy, and the 500MW Round 3 Moray Firth site, which is due to be awarded to a developer in the much anticipated announcement by Gordon Brown, later this week.
- Onshore: 1500 MW of projects already being developed; the Scottish and Southern Energy Viking wind farm on Shetland is expected to deliver 540MW from 150 turbines.
Wave & Tidal: The emerging wave and tidal industry is set to flourish around the Pentland Firth, with over 750MW of projects awaiting leasing agreements with the Crown Estate.
The Electricity Network Strategy Group, which consists of members of Government, Grid and Industry, has produced detailed plans for how the UK will utilise the vast quantity of remotely located renewable resources, via a distributed grid. The backbone to all these plans and scenarios is the assumption that the Beauly-Denny power line will be approved.
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