A NEW study published yesterday shows an offshore wind farm planned for the Firth of Forth could generate £827 million for the Scottish economy over its 30-year life.
The £2 billion Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) project by Mainstream Renewable Power is awaiting a decision of the UK Supreme Court on whether to hear an appeal against the Scottish courts’ decision to allow it to proceed – against the objections of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB Scotland.)
The charity fears NnG will have a devastating effect on bird life, especially the important nearby breeding grounds for gannets, puffins and kittiwakes.
The new study by the Fraser of Allander Institute found the scheme could support 13,900 “person years” of employment during construction and operation. The construction phase, according to the analysis, would see £510 million expected to be spent in Scotland, while a further £610m would be spent during the 25-year life of the wind farm.
The 450mw project would be able to produce enough energy to power a city the size of Edinburgh. Should the court appeal be thrown out, construction work could begin in 2019 with power coming into the grid in 2021.
The Institute’s report states: “The biggest GDP impact of this project (53 per cent of the total) will be in the services sector, with an estimated £440.2m increase in GDP over the lifetime of this project.
“The project is also estimated to generate an additional £382.2m of GDP in the construction and production sectors.”
Andy Kinsella, chief operating officer at Mainstream Renewable Power, said: “The results of the Fraser of Allander Institute’s study show the full extent of NnG’s impact on the Scottish economy for the first time.
“The study confirms that NnG will support the creation or retention of large numbers of high-skilled, high-quality jobs in Scotland during construction and its 25-year oper-ational lifetime.
“The NnG Offshore Wind Farm Coalition, launched this month, has called on RSPB Scotland to abandon its legal action challenging this project and three others.
“The report shows the full extent of the economic benefit to Scotland put at risk by this ongoing action. I would ask RSPB Scotland to listen to this call and allow the project to move forward into construction.”
Jenny Hogan, director of policy at Scottish Renewables, said: “These new figures show the huge potential offshore wind offers to Scotland’s economy, in addition to the key role it has in tackling climate change.
“News this week of another study which showed the job creation potential of the Moray East wind farm off Caithness is also to be welcomed.
“Offshore wind can make a major contribution to meeting Scotland’s climate targets, allowing us to produce clean energy from the enormous resource we have available.”
The RSPB has come under severe pressure to drop the appeal which for legal reasons has to be against the decision made in 2014 by the Scottish Ministers – since then Mainstream has reduced the original number of turbines by half.
RSPB sources have also told The National it was the methodology of the decision-making process which concerns them most of all.
On making the Supreme Court application, RSPB Scotland director Anne McCall said: “RSPB Scotland has not taken this decision lightly, however our concerns with the manner in which Scottish Ministers’ took their decisions in 2014 are undiminished.
“Additionally, the issues of the case and the recent [Court of Session] Inner House judgment extend beyond simply the impacts of these developments on important seabird populations.
“Therefore, due to the implic-ations of this latest decision for many aspects of our work we felt we had no choice but to apply to the Supreme Court.
“We are hopeful that our applic-ation will be successful and that we will be granted leave to appeal so these important issues of public interest can be considered in detail by the Supreme Court.”
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