Conservationists have called on SSE to scrap plans for a wind farm in sensitive peatland after independent findings questioned its green credentials.
RSPB Scotland claims that a 39-turbine development, due to be examined a delayed public inquiry starting today, could take almost 25 years to 'pay back' the carbon impacts of its construction.
SSE's Strathy South wind farm in north Sutherland, would operate for 25 years.
It is supported by the local community, who sees the financial support it would provide as a means to fighting depopulation. In particular that it would expand the existing 33 turbine Strathy North scheme, which has created jobs and generates more than £170,000 a year for community projects.
RSPB agrees that wind farms reduce carbon emissions by displacing more polluting power stations from the electricity grid.
But a spokesman for SSE said "The RSPB is clearly entitled to put its anti Strathy South spin into the media based on arguments that it is putting into the inquiry process, but there are two sides to every story."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article