'Most would support local windfarm'

Mar 18 2013

At least three in five people would support large wind farms in their communities, a poll suggests.

Around two-thirds (69%) say their decision to visit an area of Scotland would not be affected by the presence of a wind farm, the YouGov poll of over 1,000 Scottish adults finds.

Support for wind power (62%) is around twice as high as support for local nuclear power plants (32%) and significantly higher than support for shale gas drilling (24%). Four-fifths would generally support a large local hydro project, considerably more than other forms of energy generation such as gas (42%), oil (37%) and coal (34%).

The results have been published at the Scottish Renewables Annual Conference in Edinburgh.

The poll, commissioned by representative body Scottish Renewables, finds that three-quarters (76%) would prefer most of their electricity to come from low carbon sources. Hydro is the most favoured source, followed by wind and solar, then nuclear. Fossil fuel received just 3% of the vote and shale gas received just 1%.

Niall Stuart, chief executive of Scottish Renewables, said: "While this polling evidence doesn't mean that every renewable scheme proposed should be approved, it is important that people bear this research in mind when debating the pros and cons of the differing choices that Scotland could make to meet its future energy needs.

"I think that people also understand that we are delivering. Renewables generated more than a third of the electricity used in Scotland last year, supports more than 11,000 jobs and are helping to cut harmful carbon emissions. What other industry can help us tackle climate change while creating jobs and investment on the scale of our renewable energy industry?"

Labour's shadow energy minister, Tom Greatrex, said the UK has one of the best renewable energy sectors in the world but that this would be threatened by Scottish independence.

"Scotland makes a vital and integral contribution to that, and the future potential in developing technologies is exciting too. This potential can work for all of the UK, in Scotland but also in England, Wales and Northern Ireland," he said. "It is neither sensible nor logical for Scotland to seek to do this separately, nor for the rest of the UK to do the same. The best established, most cost effective, most realisable, most straightforward way is by doing so together."

Critics of wind power argue that turbines are inefficient and spoil Scotland's natural beauty. US businessman and self-proclaimed "world-class expert in tourism" Donald Trump, who owns a golf course in Aberdeenshire, insists turbines will "destroy" the tourism industry.