South Uist Wind Farms Plans Tentative
The Stòras Uibhist community trust plan for a 6.9 megawatt community wind farm received a huge boost when it was awarded £2.5 million by the Highland and Islands Partnership Programme. Having already secured an offer for a grid connection with Scottish and Southern Energy, the community trust have since been informed that any connection to the grid will be at a greater cost and at a later date than previously advised.
While this setback has caused anger within the community, it has also served to highlight the need to reinforce both the offshore and onshore grid network to improve grid access for renewable energy projects. Across Scotland, there is approximately 6.5GW of renewable energy capacity installed, consented or under construction. This is greater than Scotland’s 2011 target of 5GW of electricity demand from renewable sources. These projects will be queuing for connection to the Grid and indeed the South Uist community has been advised that it is 2014 at the earliest before connection.
The Scottish Government is working the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the National Grid and Ofgem to improve the infrastructure that will go some way to unlocking Scotland’s renewable energy potential. Much of the reinforcement across the UK is in Scotland, with the intention that by 2020, the grid will connect and export 11.4GW of renewable energy.