Guardian

Monday November 26, 2001

John Vidal and Kirsty Scott

Plan for world's largest wind farm
£500m Hebrides project could make UK a leader in clean energy

A Hebridean island is set to become the global capital of renewable energy with advanced plans for the world's largest onshore wind farm acting as a catalyst to attract wave and tidal power stations.

The scale of the plans is breathtaking. The project's first stage would see 250 of the world's largest wind turbines towering over thousands of acres of land near Stornoway on the island of Lewis.

If planning permission is granted Britain will more than double its renewable energy capacity. Environmental campaigners say a new generation of nuclear power stations may not then need to be built.

The giant project, which will not be officially unveiled for several weeks, would provide as much "clean" electricity as a medium-sized nuclear station. The electricity generated would be "exported" via a 350-mile undersea cable, possibly to Merseyside or North Wales.

The second stage of the £500m project, which is to be built with private money, would be an even bigger offshore wind farm, together with wave and tidal power projects. The international consortium planning the development says there is a potential to generate more than 2,000 megawatts of electricity - as much as three nuclear stations - from Lewis alone. It is understood that the land chosen is owned by the Stornoway Trust. This publicly owned charity has 28,000 hectares of some of the wildest moor and peat bogs in Britain and the income from the turbines is expected to benefit the local community, which votes on the makeup of the trust, by at least £3m a year.

But it is the potential for skilled jobs to revitalise the local community and stop the drift away from the island which most excites people who have seen the plans. Lewis has struggled to fill the gap left by the decline of traditional industries and faces a continuing problem with the island's young people leaving to seek work elsewhere.

"This would be the largest ever single investment in the Western Isles," said local MP Calum MacDonald. "It is the equivalent of oil coming without the problem."

British Energy and US multinational Amec, the leading partners in the consortium, declined to comment, saying negotiations with the Scottish Executive, the landowners and the local community were still going on. However, it is understood that the Department of Trade and Industry is to fund a feasibility study of the £300m undersea cable. A long consultation with environment groups, the local community, Scottish National Heritage and others is expected but no planning application will be made for at least a year.

Locals said they had not heard of the scheme, but some thought the community would be open to the idea if it was not too obtrusive. The Western Isles Council has expressed interest in renewable energy. It has set up an "energy innovation zone" and recently gave planning consent for a smaller wind turbine project.

"I think renewable energy is very positive for the Western Isles," said Finlay Morrison, a Lewis councillor. "But I think there will be quite a discussion if it is that size of development. If there's a windmill on every hill then I'm not sure that the local population will accept that, but if it is sensibly handled then they might be more open to the idea."

Linda Johnson, proprietor of the Hebridean guest house in Stornoway, said islanders would want to see details.

Landscape fears

"Some people will say it will spoil the landscape and it won't be very nice to look at, but there is so much open space here you could put it somewhere where you don't really see it," she said. "And the idea of it bringing money to the island is good. We need it badly."

Kevin Dunion, director of Scottish Friends of the Earth, said: "This is the type of development we would welcome. It's got the environmental benefits of significantly reducing fossil fuels but it has a very high potential for construction and main tenance job creation in a part of Scotland that desperately needs development.

"But we need to see the planning applications and community response. There will be concern about the visual impact and the preferred site is a European-protected peat bog."

"If the development does take place it will put a major spoke into the wheel of nuclear power."

The Stornoway development is expected to be backed by the Scottish Executive and the DTI. Britain is committed to generating at least 10% of its energy from renewables within 10 years, and this one project would catapult it to near the top of the European green energy league.

The largest British single wind power station, in Blyth, Northumberland, generates less than 50 megawatts. The Lewis project will be almost twice as large as any onshore wind farm in the world, generating 600 megawatts. But it is seen as only the start. The Western Isles have some of the best conditions in the world for wind, tidal and wave power but developers have always had the problem of how to connect to the national grid.

The proposed cable running directly to England or Wales is seen as the answer, avoiding having to strengthen hundreds of miles of power lines in Scotland and Northern England where the national grid is most fragile. It is hoped the cable would encourage other renewable energy companies from around the world to set up on Lewis.

"The plan is to use the initial onshore wind farm to generate the cash to finance the cable", said Mr MacDonald. "The second stage will be to develop offshore wind and tidal power and, looking far ahead, to position the Hebrides as an ideal sight for the nirvana of energy - hydrogen power. This project could unlock the whole potential of renewables to give Britain sustainable, clean energy."

Bleak island with a falling population

Lewis is the largest and most northerly of the Western Isles, or Outer Hebrides. Its Gaelic name, Leodhas, means "marshy," and much of the flat and largely treeless island is covered by a blanket of peat.

Lewis and Harris, its adjoining neighbour, are technically the same island, but are divided by different terrain and have long been referred to as separate places.

Most of the traditional industries, such as the production of Harris Tweed, are in crisis or have died out, and unemployment is above the Scottish average. Fish farming, agriculture and tourism are the economic mainstays, but the island's population has continued to decline as successive generations of young people head to the mainland in search of work.

Lewis has a population of 20,000 - a drop of 6% since 1991 - with 8,000 living in the only large town, Stornoway.

Gaelic culture has continued to thrive on the island. Road signs are in Gaelic and the language is still spoken by many of the islanders. The residents of Lewis and Harris have strong religious beliefs and Sunday is observed, literally, as a day of rest.

Most tourists come to the island to see the famous Callanish standing stones, one of the most important formations in Europe, thought to be 4,000 years old.

New generation

The first electricity-generating wind turbine was built in 1891 by the Danish meteorologist Paul la Cour.

The government is working towards providing 10% of Britain's electricity supplies from renewable sources by 2010; at present, they provide 2.8%.

Britain is Europe's windiest country but has only 880 operating wind turbines, based on 61 wind farms. They produce less than 1% of the country's needs. World leader Denmark gets 15% of its power that way.

According to Cabinet Office figures, onshore wind farms will generate energy at around half the cost of nuclear power stations by 2020.