Highland pylons motion. Should grid listen to locals?

Pylons, particularly 60-metre-high 'super pylons', have impacts. Many of these are positive and invaluable in the fight against climate change.

Without new high-voltage overhead lines, substations, and battery parks, we stand little chance of creating a net zero grid or pushing hard enough to mitigate emissions to prevent the most devastating climate change. That is not only the case in Scotland, but across the world.

A measure of this change can be seen in Rystad Energy's estimate that by 2030, grid infrastructure will be drawing $3.1 trillion in investment globally.

But the problem with pylons, powerlines and other grid infrastructure is that they also have an impact on communities, and ecosystems.

Yesterday a landmark motion, proposed by Councillor Helen Crawford, was passed by the Highland Council. It called for “real-time mapping” showing all the major renewable energy-related developments both existing and proposed, therefore providing “a holistic overview of the applications that are currently in the pipeline”.

It also marked a recognition of the levels of dismay over new grid infrastructure in Highland communities and a reminder that the rolling out of such structures is not just an engineering challenge, but a just transition issue.

Pylons (Image: Herald Design)

The issue has been brewing for a while. When I visited some of the events at the offshore wind conference earlier this year, anti-pylon sentiment was a key challenge being flagged up. Whilst the public seemed increasingly on board with offshore and onshire wind farms, people were saying, there was a gathering mood against pylons.

But to deliver those massive gigawatts of energy from both offshore and onshore wind to the rest of the UK, there are really only two options - overhead lines, or subsea cables. The latter are often rejected for being expensive or having their own marine impacts. Not all of our cable, therefore, can go subsea.

The scale of grid roll-out is set to be unprecedented. Almost a year ago, a report by electricity commissioner, Nick Winser, stated that to deliver the expansion of renewable energy planned by the then-government, an expansion of grid would be required over the next seven years that would be four times the deployment which had taken place since 1990. Since then the government has changed, and under Labour the speed of roll-out will be still faster.

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It may be tempting for some to dismiss these local objectors as NIMBYs, climate deniers or anti-wind obsessives (and there are undoubtedly some), but from my experience such campaigners are just a fraction.

Only just a couple of weeks ago, I was travelling the Highlands, visiting nature projects, and the issue of pylons and their routes was raised, as a concern, numerous times. The people expressing their fears were climate worriers and warriors - they were involved in nature restoration, nature-friendly farming, or woodland protection.  Their concerns are reminders of the balancing act involved in both cutting emissions and protecting nature in a biodiversity crisis - and also of the challenges of getting communities on board.

How we create a just transition for those living in rural areas, and also deliver nature protection and restoration, is not a question that can be ignored.

It is significant that 46 Community Councils joined forces to demand that Highland Council passed Councillor Crawford's Motion on Major Infrastructure and Community Engagement. What’s clear is that people want a say in where these powerlines go. They feel they know their local areas and have something to contribute. They also want more transparency.

Anger over new powerlines is also not confined to the Highland local authority area. It's there too, in Angus and Fife, where the Kintore-Tealing powerline is set for construction.

Among those raising alarm is Ed Troughton, a homeowner representing many others in this particular area, Lochty, Angus. What concerns him and 58 other signatories to a PDF presentation, is the lack of justification for the most recent siting of the preferred route.

He shared with me a short film featuring drone footage of the narrow strath that runs approximately 5 kilometres from Lochty Farm due West to Fern, through which the Kintore-Tealing powerline, with its 60 metre-high pylons, is set to run.

"It is an area of historic note," he wrote, "abundant with flora and fauna (many red listed) that have been built up carefully over many years – and is quiet and unspoiled.... and abundant with species that have taken a long time to establish in this area".

Mr Troughton also noted that there are alternative routes "less damaging to the local Flora and Fauna and which do not have to go through native upland birch woods (precious few in Angus) and ancient woodlands – both of which are UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) priority habitat – and it is the lack of justification for this move through such an area that is angering so many local residents"

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There is, across industry and communities, a serious weighing up of benefits and losses that needs to be done and is often being done. There is also a balancing out of carrot and stick, in terms of policies.

Has that been achieved? Clearly not yet. 

For transmission developer SSEN ithe big challenge is how to roll out these powerlines with the minimum amount of collateral damage, whether on precious ecosystems or to lifestyles and livelihoods. It means ensuring that local communities do secure sufficient benefits, not just from wind farms, but all local energy infrastructure that has an impact on their lives.

But for all of us it also means all of us beginning to acknowledge that the benefit we get from a clean power grid is not only electricity, but the global good of climate change mitigation, a benefit to everyone, everywhere.

Sometimes we lose sight of this good, so invisible and intangible, and only a matter of rising parts per million in the air we breathe, or fractions of degrees celsius.

Often it’s said that what’s needed for the next stage of net zero is a war footing, a coming together in a kind of Blitz mentality. We need to feel like we are in it together The grid, our web of energy connections, could be where we come together, or fall apart.