New Power Line Approved. But Is It The Final Approval?

Photo by motumboe

This was going to be a post about the Scottish Government doing something right for once.

They announced in Parliament this afternoon that they have (finally) given planning consent for the new Beauly-Denny Power Line.

The line has proved controversial mainly for the NIMBY factor - the pylons would be taller than the original ones there.

But if we want to transmit renewable energy from the areas in which it is best generated - the North of Scotland - to the areas where it is most used - the Central Belt - then the new, upgraded power line is a must.

In fact, and this was going to be my second bit of praise for the Scottish Government, the Energy Minister Jim Mather acknowledged during an answer to a Conservative question that this was only a beginning and that we would need to look at upgrading the grid throughout Scotland, including undersea cables down the coasts.

But then he blew it.

I'm paraphrasing, but the words were along the lines of "We anticipate the project to be started within 4 years and finished within 10 years"

Excuse me? Did you just say it was going to take 10 years to build a power line??

That would take us right up to 2020, the year when Scotland is supposed to be getting 50% of it's energy from renewables.

Of course, he didn't say it would take 10 years but "within" 10 years. But the cat is out of the bag, the seed of doubt has been sown, the little nagging "What do they know about this whole process that they're not letting on about?"

Ach, SNP. You almost had me praising you.