Wheelhouse: UK should recognise ‘vital importance’ of renewables
10/04/2017The Scottish government has called on Westminster to “recognise the vital importance of island renewables to the UK energy market”.
Holyrood Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse and BEIS Secretary Greg Clark will today co-chair the fifth meeting of the Scottish Islands Renewables Delivery Forum in Stornoway.
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Discussions are focused on consultation which Scottish ministers said “back-tracked on support for wind projects on the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland”.
“The development of proposed major projects alone would trigger initial investment of £2.5bn,” said Holyrood.
Wheelhouse added: “The planned projects on the Western and Shetland Isles would face extremely high locational transmission charges to provide electricity to the mainland.
“That is why an appropriate support mechanism is so important to help unlock very significant capital investment from the private sector and community-owned developers as well as, in turn, underpinning the investment case to National Grid for vital islands grid connections.”
The UK government carried out consultation on potential Contract for Difference supports for so called remote islands wind earlier this year.
The stated preference is that it will not be included in future CfD rounds and a final decision is due this spring.
Image: Mi9