A minister yesterday promised to cut national grid connection charges to help boost the renewable power industry in Scotland.
A minister yesterday promised to cut national grid connection charges to help boost the renewable power industry in Scotland.
Malcolm Wicks, UK Energy Minister, was in Glasgow at the British Wind Energy Association conference to announce plans for a wind farm in Devon.
Last month, First Minister Alex Salmond criticised the charging system under which Orkney can pay 10 times more than the south of England to be connected to the national power network, claiming the charges were a "tax on geography" discriminating against areas with the biggest potential for production as they are remote with low populations.
Speaking to The Herald, Mr Wicks said they were looking to bring down charges. He said: "I was in Orkney a few weeks ago and have been speaking to people from the islands. I am certainly struck by the fact there are huge renewable resources in the north of Scotland and the islands and that much of the demand is in the south, in England.
"As a UK Government in terms of transmission charges we will use our powers to bring down these costs. Ofgem are doing some work and we are doing some work on that.
"People are worried about rising energy bills and costs are passed on to the customer. We wouldn't go as far as standardisation, but we will look at them being more similar. Section 185 of the Energy Act lets us reduce charges and we will do that for the islands. We will use those powers."
Orkney could be charged as much as £100 per kilowatt for connection while in the south of England the charge could be as low as £10 per kilowatt.
A recent study showed connection charges for the Scottish islands were the most expensive in Europe, 30 times greater than in Denmark.
Ofgem is also considering a proposal to charge remote generators a fee for loss of electricity, in the form of heat, as it is fed along cables. It has promised a decision by next spring.
Mr Wicks earlier told the conference the government was committed to tripling renewable electricity by 2015.
He said: "Our renewable future is burning bright in Britain. Innovative projects like the new wave and tidal testing facility off the Orkney islands, the recently consented wave hub in Cornwall and a Severn barrage, if developed, will all ensure the UK remains a centre of renewable excellence."
He said increasing renewables would contribute to the UK's goals of energy security and tackling climate change.
At the conference the Westminster government was attacked by Jim Mather, the Scottish Government's Minister for Energy, for its plan to expand nuclear capacity.
Mr Mather said claims that Scottish emission reduction targets could not be met without nuclear power were "desperate and hollow". He said: "Scotland has vast resources of renewable energy, enough to meet our demands for power several times over.
"Let me be absolutely clear, the Scottish Government completely rejects the development of dangerous, unnecessary and costly new nuclear power stations in Scotland. I call on the UK Government to abandon its short-sighted plans to support an expansion in nuclear capacity and instead focus its energies on providing the investment in new renewable technologies that have the long-term promise we know can be delivered."
