SCOTTISHPower’s plans to place solar panels next to wind turbines (“Scotland to welcome in sun power revolution”, December 5) appear driven by profit and
are not a sensible way to address global warming.
Land plays a key role in absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. A good indication of the issues at stake was provided
by Dr Rebekka Artz in the same edition of The Herald in her article (“For peat’s sake, it’s time to get our hands dirty and halt soil erosion”) to mark World Soil Day, in which she described the importance of soils and peat for absorbing carbon out of the atmosphere, and why we need to protect them. Yet Scottish Power is now proposing to cover swathes of land that could be fulfilling this function with solar panels. This is not sensible.
But perhaps ScottishPower is proposing to place these solar panels on the large “laydown” areas around each wind turbine and the 7m-wide tracks that connect them rather than on the vegetated land around them?
The process of constructing of these tracks and laydown areas destroyed significant areas of peat and soils, releasing carbon into the atmosphere. In most places this could be justified in that the amount of electricity subsequently generated by the wind turbines more than offset the release of carbon into the atmosphere. The subsequent failure, however, to restore these areas properly has resulted in significant tracts of the land being removed from carbon absorption processes (and in considerable scars being left all over the countryside). That has never been justifiable.
Current Scottish Government policy rightly emphasises the importance of both restoring peat and growing trees as a means of absorbing carbon out of the atmosphere. Will the same government that is paying for peat restoration projects and large tree planting programmes across Scotland, also allow ScottishPower to cover swathes of the countryside with solar panels?
If so, that is not good use of the land and will undermine other policy objectives. The proper
place for solar panels is on the
roofs of buildings. Without Government intervention, however, that is unlikely to happen to the extent required because
its far cheaper and easier for companies such as ScottishPower to create solar panel farms in the countryside.
It is time the Scottish Government started to join up its thinking on climate change. A first step would be to issue directions to planning authorities that ensures the siting of renewable energy projects are in the right place
and that those located in the countryside are restored properly, minimising their adverse environmental impacts. A second step in respect of solar panels would be to change building regulations so all new buildings are required to incorporate solar panels into their roofs.
Nick Kempe, Glasgow, G41.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel