SSE gives go-ahead to subsidy-free windfarm extension

SSE Renewables has given the go-ahead to its first subsidy-free onshore wind project – a 47MW extension to its Gordonbush windfarm near Brora in the Scottish Highlands.

The windfarm currently features 35 turbines with a combined capacity of 70MW to which SSE will add another 11. Construction is scheduled to begin in March.

The company’s managing director Jim Smith nevertheless warned that merchant investment is only viable for a limited number of the most attractive projects.

He said onshore wind will not be deployed at the rate needed to meet Scotland and the UK’s net zero targets without some form of revenue stabilisation, either through access to Contracts for Difference auctions or a more robust carbon price.

“Onshore wind is the cheapest form of low carbon generation and brings job and investment to rural communities,” said Smith. “Yet despite the climate emergency, onshore wind construction is at the lowest it has been in a decade.

“We urge the UK government to ensure onshore wind can be developed at the pace and scale set out by the Committee on Climate Change by providing investors with more certainty over the income they will receive for generating zero-carbon power in the longer term.

“Accelerating onshore wind development would be a quick win for government as it looks to set out plans to meet net zero in the run up to COP26 in Glasgow this year.”

The Committee on Climate Change has said the UK will likely need 35GW of onshore wind capacity by 2035 on the way to meeting its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

To reach that level, the UK would need to install almost 1.5GW of capacity each year for the next decade and half. The tally currently stands at 13.5GW.

The latest statistics released by RenewableUK show installations fell for the second year running in 2019.

After hitting a record high of 2,683MW in 2017 as developers dashed to secure the last of the subsidies available through the Renewables Obligation scheme, installations fell to 651MW the following year and 629MW last year.

According to the government’s renewable energy planning database, the pipeline of shovel-ready onshore wind projects stood at 4.6GW as of December 2019, up from 4GW a year previously.

Speaking at a briefing held by Energy UK yesterday (30 January), Sam Hall, director of the Conservative Environment Network, said Tory opposition to onshore wind is “thawing”, although there are “still barriers to overcome”.

At the end of October, Scottish Power began construction of its first two subsidy-free onshore wind projects, which are being built on the basis of power purchase agreements with Amazon and Tesco. They will have a combined capacity of 80MW.

Other subsidy-free wind projects to be given the green light include the 46MW Crossdykes windfarm being built by Muirhall Energy and WWS Renewables and Greencoat UK Wind’s 47MW Douglas West windfarm.