Beauly to Denny
As a poster has noted, the Beauly to Denny pylons are going to a public inquiry.
To make my position clear; I long expected this to be the case, and I have only one small problem with this. When the Executive announced that Scotland was to generate more electricity from renewable sources, did no-one think about the infrastructure requirements to deliver this electricity? Obviously not.
The debate that we should have had - or more correctly the political decision that should have been taken - was that we will have renewables; they are likely to be sourced from the periphery (excuse that word, please); and btw there will be new cables running to connect to the grid.
At that point there could have been a more informed debate about renewables - which might have resulted in fewer wind turbines and more money into developing wave power, or maybe even old, unsexy, hydro.
However that is in the past.
Will it delay the LWP and BMP applications??? Almost certainly not, as as far as I know the developers have factored the Beauly-Denny Public Inquiry into their plans and are considering other ways of connecting to the grid. The obvious one is to run a cable to Hunterston, although that may not be the very best location, and other points may be being considered.
It is likely that Beauly-Denny PI will take years and years, and if there is a decision before the 2010 election I'll be surprised. A long subsea cable now looks highly likely, and if this is of suffcient size and capacity it may be an ever better outcome for the islands, as offshore developments could more easily be connected
To make my position clear; I long expected this to be the case, and I have only one small problem with this. When the Executive announced that Scotland was to generate more electricity from renewable sources, did no-one think about the infrastructure requirements to deliver this electricity? Obviously not.
The debate that we should have had - or more correctly the political decision that should have been taken - was that we will have renewables; they are likely to be sourced from the periphery (excuse that word, please); and btw there will be new cables running to connect to the grid.
At that point there could have been a more informed debate about renewables - which might have resulted in fewer wind turbines and more money into developing wave power, or maybe even old, unsexy, hydro.
However that is in the past.
Will it delay the LWP and BMP applications??? Almost certainly not, as as far as I know the developers have factored the Beauly-Denny Public Inquiry into their plans and are considering other ways of connecting to the grid. The obvious one is to run a cable to Hunterston, although that may not be the very best location, and other points may be being considered.
It is likely that Beauly-Denny PI will take years and years, and if there is a decision before the 2010 election I'll be surprised. A long subsea cable now looks highly likely, and if this is of suffcient size and capacity it may be an ever better outcome for the islands, as offshore developments could more easily be connected
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