WORLD WILDLIFE FUND PICKS WIND & WIRES OVER WARMING

Admiring Scotland’s energy
13 January 2010 (World Wildlife Fund)

"It’s great to see Scotland taking innovative strides towards a renewable-energy future, with two significant developments…

"First came the Scottish government’s bold approval of the somewhat controversial plan to upgrade 220km of electricity lines…The Beauly-Denny upgrade is considered essential for distributing a new generation of wind, wave and hydro power from the north of Scotland to the rest of the country. The scheme will mainly involve removing hundreds of old electricity pylons and cables and replacing them with fewer, but larger, new ones."

WWF believes new transmission capacity precedes New Energy to displace Old Coal. (click to enlarge)

"The plans drew objections from those who felt the larger pylons would be a rural eyesore. At WWF we take the view that climate change is a far bigger environmental threat, and this scheme is the best way to hit low-carbon targets and help control global warming…"

The UK will likely dominate the world in offshore wind technology by 2020. (click to enlarge)

"The second announcement…involved the Crown Estate – the body that owns the seabed on behalf of the British government – granting licences for some of the world’s biggest offshore wind projects.

"The nine new wind farms to be built around the UK coastline, including 1,000 turbines off the Scottish east coast, are part of a plan to produce up to 32GW, around a quarter of Britain’s electricity requirements, from wind power – roughly the equivalent of 18 coal-fired power stations."