Last week, someone left the November 6th edition of the Shetland Times on board my train and I'm glad they did as it gave me a chance to catch up on the (quite vicious at times) windfarm debate.
If you recall, I spent a week on the Shetland Islands this summer and noted that a proposal by a company called Viking Energy to build 150 wind turbines on the Mainland was being strongly opposed, particularly in the letters page of The Shetland Times.
Viking, for their part, seemed quite stunned that anyone could possibly oppose a wind farm, while the anti-windfarm group were drawing on resources and arguments previously used in other windfarm protests in Britain to get their points across strongly and loudly.
Indeed, the week I was there I didn't see or hear any pro-windfarm views.
It seems that the islanders who are for the turbines have now got their act together and formed a group of their own which is starting to get pro-windfarm publicity into the local press via articles and the letters page.
The company themselves are fighting back with organised trips to other windfarms in Scotland to anyone who has doubts or concerns, and it seems a number of community groups have taken them up on this offer - including The Shetland Times themselves who devote a huge two page article to their trip.
It's nice to see the debate not be so lopsided, but I stand by what I said in my previous post on this: the plans as they stand have serious flaws and I can't see the whole 150 turbines being built, but there will be a windfarm on Shetland and I think it will be a positive thing for the community.
You can argue about the landscape being spoiled, but with climate change the landscape will be spoiled anyway and will not look how it does now. And Shetland can only gain from community ownership of the turbines, especially with the dwindling North Sea oil reserves seeing an entire industry disappearing from the islands in the not-too-distant future.
0 comments:
Post a Comment