Scottish NPS to ‘actively enable’ renewable developments

A more supportive planning framework for renewables has been included in Scotland’s new programme for government, which has been unveiled following the Green Party’s landmark decision to enter the Holyrood administration.

Last week the Greens and the Scottish National Party (SNP) announced a power sharing deal and the Bute House Agreement setting out the draft policy programme for the next five years.

As part of the agreement, the Greens are due to take two junior ministerial posts, the first time that the party has entered a national UK government.

The seven Green MSPs have held the balance of power in the Scottish Parliament since May’s Holyrood election.

The Bute House agreement sets out the areas where the Greens and the SNP have agreed to collaborate on in government, including a section on energy.

This sets an ambition to deliver up to 12GW of installed onshore wind by 2030, 1GW more than the Scottish government has previously committed to.

The agreement states that the Scottish government’s revised National Planning Framework will “actively” enable renewable energy, support the repowering of existing wind turbine sites and plan for the expansion of the grid.

It will also recognise the global climate emergency as a material consideration when considering applications for renewable energy developments.

New onshore wind farms will be supported in principle, outside of sensitive landscape areas like National Parks, unless they have “unacceptable” impacts.

And the new planning framework will designate all renewable energy projects bigger than 50MW, together with supporting electricity grid transmission infrastructure, as a national development.

The agreement also says the Scottish government’s forthcoming Energy Strategy will contain a “strengthened” framework of support for marine renewable and offshore wind energy, while setting out a vision for the future of the solar power sector, which it says has an important role in the continued decarbonisation of the UK’s heat and electricity supply.

And the document pledges to phase out the need to install new or replacement fossil fuel boilers in areas connected to the gas grid from 2030, albeit subject to subject to technological developments and decisions by the UK government in areas it has jurisdiction over.

The agreement acknowledges that while the two governing parties do not have an ‘entirely shared vision’ for the role of hydrogen and carbon capture, use and storage (CCS), it recognises these technologies will play a part in Scotland’s just transition to net zero.

Thomas McMillan, chair of Solar Energy Scotland, welcomes the inclusion of solar in the draft policy programme.

He said: “The solar energy industry in Scotland welcomes the clear recognition in the cooperation agreement of the important role solar can play in Scotland’s drive to meet our 2030 climate obligations. As the cheapest, most readily deployable renewable technology, with substantial benefits for the economy and helping to tackle fuel poverty, it is time for the sector to be allowed to grow and flourish. Scotland’s solar opportunities could see deployment increase 15-fold by 2030, and this would deliver a solar sector in Scotland proportional to what is being achieved elsewhere in the UK.”