EXCLUSIVE
Tom Gordon
Scottish Political Editor
THE Scottish Tories have been accused of gross hypocrisy after denouncing windfarms while one of their own MSPs plans a massive windfarm on his Highland estate.
Declaring "rural Scotland has had enough", energy spokesman Murdo Fraser yesterday urged the SNP to back a Tory election pledge to "end any new public subsidy" for onshore turbines.
"The Scottish Government has rolled out the red carpet for windfarms for too long," he said.
"We can see the visual damage that has caused, and it makes no financial sense for so much money to be ploughed into a form of energy that is unreliable and intermittent.
"The Conservatives in Westminster have pledged to end subsidies. Communities who've had their landscapes blighted by turbines will no doubt agree."
However one community potentially "blighted by turbines" owes its fate directly to Fraser's Holyrood colleague, the Tory environment spokesman Sir Jamie McGrigor.
The Highlands and Islands MSP has angered many constituents by signing an £8m deal with German energy firm RWE Innogy for a 45 megawatt windfarm at Ardchonnel, near Loch Awe.
Argyll & Bute councillors unanimously refused the scheme planning permission last year "due to its adverse landscape, visual, and cumulative impact on the landscape setting".
The watchdog Scottish Natural Heritage had also warned it would be "out of scale".
However RWE Innogy appealed, and a final decision is now expected this summer.
Campaigner Irene McClounnan from the nearby village of Dalavich, which fears the windfarm will wreck the tourist trade, accused the Tories of "horrendous" double-standards on the issue.
She told the Sunday Herald: "My God! How hypocritical can they get? They're just trying to get back some of their votes and hoping that folk who are against windfarms will back them."
Fraser spoke out after new official figures showed there are already 15.8 gigawatts of windfarm capacity installed, approved or under construction in Scotland, enough to hit the SNP target of 100 per cent of the country's electricity coming from renewables by 2020.
The 15 new turbines proposed for Ardchonnel, each the height of seven double-decker buses, would generate enough electricity to supply 40 per cent of the homes in Argyll & Bute.
Sir Jamie, 65, who says the project would mean new jobs, stands to make a fortune from it.
According to his 2011 contract with RWE, he should receive at least £315,000 a year, which over the 25-year life of the turbines should amount to over £8m.
Three years before signing with RWE, Sir Jamie put his name to a parliamentary motion demanding rules on windfarms to end "speculative applications... threatening scenic areas".
RWE Innogy said it awaited the effect of the Tory manifesto pledge "with concern".
A spokeswoman said: "We would not wish to speculate on the impact on individual projects, but certainly investment in onshore projects and valuable skilled jobs are at risk."
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Conservatives said: "This is a personal matter for the MSP involved and does not dictate Scottish Conservative Party policy."
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