Investigation
By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor

Plans for more than 3,000 new wind turbines across Scotland are facing prolonged delays because the planning system is logjammed, undermining ministers' efforts to cut the pollution that is wrecking the climate.

An investigation by the Sunday Herald has revealed that frustrated developers are waiting an average of 33 months to get decisions on big wind farms from the Scottish government, and 20 months for decisions on smaller projects from local authorities.

The amount of electricity that would be generated by the 153 wind farms currently held up in the planning queue is enough to provide 60% of all Scotland's power, and could easily replace the nation's nuclear power stations at Hunterston in North Ayrshire and Torness in East Lothian.

"The planning system is overloaded, both at a local authority level and in Edinburgh," said Brian Wilson, the former UK energy minister who now chairs the renewable energy company, Airtricity. "It's a huge structural flaw in the system which should have been addressed at the time the targets were set."

The whole way in which planning applications were handled was "geared to delay" and the previous Scottish administration hadn't done enough about it, Wilson argued. "For developers, a no' in a reasonable time frame can be better than a yes' over three or four years."

The SNP government has promised to boost the proportion of Scotland's electricity demand met by renewable sources to 31% by 2011 and 50% by 2020. Around 20% of Scotland's electricity is currently generated by renewables.

But the huge backlog of wind farm applications is jeopardising progress, with dozens of major projects waiting up to five years for approval. Altogether there are 74 schemes for which planning applications have been submitted, 64 for which applications are being prepared, and 15 that are under appeal.

According to the latest data from the renewables industry, projects which have been rejected by a public local inquiry and then go to the Scottish government take an average of 45 months to win approval. Less controversial schemes take an average of 29 months to be decided by the government.

The number of schemes still on the drawing board, dwarfs the 115 wind farms that have been given the go ahead. The generating capacity of all the proposed projects is more than two and a half times greater than the capacity of all the agreed projects (see table).

The problem is unlikely to be eased by the Scottish government's decision - expected in the next few days - on the biggest wind farm, proposed for the Isle of Lewis. Most observers expect the 180-turbine scheme, first put forward by AMEC and British Energy in 2004, to be rejected because of the environmental damage it would do.

Whatever the outcome in Lewis, AMEC Wind Energy's managing director, David Hodkinson, described the delays as "a source of consternation for developers". He stressed, though, that wind farms "stirred up a lot of emotion and so need to be treated carefully by decision-makers."

Other projects that have been kept waiting in the wings for at least the last three years include Afton in East Ayrshire, Berryburn in Moray, Ewehill in Dumfries and Galloway and Griffin in Perth and Kinross. One 35-turbine scheme proposed by Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) for Gordonbush in the eastern Highlands as far back as June 2003 is still awaiting a verdict.

Some individual wind farm applications are being dealt with in a reasonable way, said an SSE spokesman. "Nevertheless, the process overall remains too unpredictable, uncertain and time-consuming to be an effective means of delivering Scotland's renewable energy ambitions and we would encourage ministers and MSPs of all parties to continue to look for ways of improving it."

The Scottish government agrees that the delays are unacceptable. "We accept that 33 months is not quick enough to deal with applications," the energy minister, Jim Mather, told the Sunday Herald.

"Our aim is to make decisions within nine months by improving the quality of applications, introducing more certainty about turnaround times and ensuring that more robust procedures are implemented. This will require much greater emphasis than has been the case on getting the application right before it is submitted."

Mather blamed the backlog on "a situation that has built up over a number of years", but he argued that the SNP had already improved matters. The government had given consent to five applications in its first six months, compared to an average of 3.7 a year under the previous administration.

One wind farm recently given the green light, at Harestanes near Moffat, will be the second largest in Scotland, capable of powering 120,000 homes. But critics point out that delays caused by the election last May could have caused some applications to back up.

Ministers, however, have won praise from the industry for trying to speed up the process. "The wind energy sector in Scotland has made progress in the past 10 years but could have made an even greater contribution to the Scottish economy and fight against climate change sooner if decisions had been made more quickly," said Jason Ormiston, chief executive of the industry body, Scottish Renewables.

Most developers had complained of slow progress, and welcomed Mather's target to cut the decision time to nine months, he added. "We hope that local planners, and other statutory consultees, will be able to match that commitment."

Under statute, wind farms larger than 50 megawatts have to be considered by the Scottish government, while smaller schemes can be dealt with by local authorities. The 20-month time lag for the smaller schemes also upsets developers, who say that councils should be able to make decisions in four months.

Local authorities said they were trying to speed up procedures, despite a shortage of professional planners. "Wind farm applications can be particularly problematic and contentious because of the perceived environmental impact," said a spokesman for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.

"If such applications are subject to objections, as given their nature they almost always are, the process can become a legal one, rather than one which the planning authority can necessarily control. Wind farm developers could help by spending more time informing the public about their proposals."

The government's conservation agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), has tried to block around a quarter of wind farm applications that it thought would damage protected wildlife and natural habitats. "There are many complex issues associated with these types of developments," said an SNH spokesman.

But things could be done to make the process more efficient, he argued. "We are very keen to have discussions with developers very early on in order to highlight the main natural heritage issues relevant to their particular proposal. We also steer developers toward our strategic locational guidance for wind farms."

Although the Royal Society for Protection of Birds has also objected to a few wind farms, it has raised no serious concerns about 90% of proposals. "Renewable energy is one important means of tackling the global threats posed by climate change and Scotland has more renewable resources than anywhere else in Europe," said Anne McCall, head of planning and development for RSPB Scotland.

"In our experience those applications which are carefully sited and designed and which are submitted with all the necessary information are less likely to cause conflict, delay or long-term damage to our natural heritage."