Beauly-Denny power line rejected by Stirling Council
September 27 2011
Despite having already been approved by the Scottish Government, Scottish Power must work with the council to mitigate its impact on the area – a requirement which prompted the meeting.
Scottish Power claims it can meet its obligations through a mixture of camouflage paint on the towers and planting around their bases but has ruled out undergrounding as prohibitively expensive.
Speaking to the BBC councillor Calum Campbell said: “When you have 50-metre-high towers, I'm afraid planting trees and painting the pylons is not effective visual mitigation."
Campbell is calling for the Scottish Government to insist on undergrounding the line as a condition of consent.
Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy plan to begin erecting the line in 2014 for completion by 2020.
600 pylons up to 50m in height will be erected along the 137 mile route, connecting renewable energy hotspots in the Highlands to areas of demand in the central belt.
The controversy follows a design competition launched by the RIBA to design a new breed of electricity pylons, first conceived back in the 1920s.
4 Comments
#2 Posted by Jimbo on 30 Sep 2011 at 10:05 AM
James, we're not short of electricity (or at least the energy to generate it), but it's in the 'wrong' place; lots of wind and waves etc up north, but most of the people further south! Hence the need for grid improvements; "connecting renewable energy hotspots in the Highlands to areas of demand in the central belt", unless you think we should build some more power stations closer to the major population centres? Maybe you could volunteer your back garden as a potential location??
#3 Posted by brian on 30 Sep 2011 at 13:37 PM
If the facility to generate all this electrickery is in the "wrong place" Jimbo, then why do I have masses of turbines surrounding my hamlet in the central belt? AND be paying them to NOT produce electrickery when required, or not (to have a double negative)? Our energy strategy is not fully formed as yet. We need to seriously look at the whole picture - demand; location; generation; distribution; storage. Only then will we have an agreeable and achieveable solution for our future needs.
Why are we producing electrical power through wind down here, and also building a transmission line from Beauly to Denny?
We DO need a grid. Let's get it sorted. But let's not pay to NOT produce the stuff locally.
Why are we producing electrical power through wind down here, and also building a transmission line from Beauly to Denny?
We DO need a grid. Let's get it sorted. But let's not pay to NOT produce the stuff locally.
#4 Posted by James Tallent on 30 Sep 2011 at 20:18 PM
Wind/tide energy is less than 5%...and can be produced just as easily in the Central Belt. These pylons are being proposed by a PRIVATE company, who care only about their SHAREHOLDERS and could not give a DAMN about the scenery that they DESTROY!
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We are not short of electricity and no-one is suggesting that we will be.