Viking Energy lodge section 36 planning application

21 May 2009, more than two years late, Viking Energy finally made their planning application on for Europes' largest wind farm. To the anger of many, they deliberately delayed issue of their EIA until the same day. This initially gave the many thousands of people opposed to the plans until 28 July 2009 to make their formal objection. It is believed that Viking Energy deliberately sought to delay access to the EIA to the people of Shetland. In fact it is likely that the EIA had already been lodged with statutory consultees when Viking Energy were still telling people it was not yet completed. Viking Energy also shamefully employed the tactic of telling people not to come to any decision on the project until the EIA had been published. Rather than give the people of Shetland access to the EIA well in advance of a planning application, Viking Energy clearly decided to give people as little time as possible to view, consider and respond to the EIA. For a document years in the making, less than two months total total response time is still unfair and inadequate.

Breaking news

Following public outcry at a 28 days deadline to respond, the planning objection date has now been extended to 28 July 2009. Sustainable Shetland has received confirmation from the Energy Consents Unit that this applies to ALL objections for members of the public, regardless of where thay live. Not just "local people" as the Viking Energy PR company would have you believe.

Planning extensions have to be agreed by the developer(!). The public outcry over the short time available appears to have forced Viking Energy to rethink their initial attempts to limit the time available to object to the plan, illustrated by their sneaky and deliberately late release of their Environmental Statement, and comments that the EIA was in the final stages when it had already been completed up to two weeks earlier.

How to object to this planning application

It is important that objections contain specific information to be valid and counted. Information on how you can object.

Quickest and easiest is an e-objection. We have embedded the official Scottish Government e-objection form.

The wind farm proposal

Scale: Approximately 150 turbines with up to 540MW capacity.

Turbine size: tower 90m, turbine blade diameter 110m. Total height - tip to base is 145m.

By way of comparison, the largest of the current Burradale turbines is 71m high, Lerwick Town hall clock tower is about 22m and millennia old Mousa Broch is about 13m high.

Location: Shetland Islands. UK. Specific site, most of North Central mainland Shetland.

Size: Site area will be about 18 km north-south and at widest point 11 km East to West. (That's about 11 miles by 7 miles)

Area of site: 12,800 hectares (32,000) acres.

Development cost about £800m at June 09, up from £600m at April 09!.

Cable to mainland UK ("the interconnector") £500m +

Converter station, site, about 200m x 120m. Buildings, up to 4 stories high.

Developers: 50/50 joint Project between Viking Energy Ltd (subsidiary of Shetland Charitable Trust) and SSE Viking Ltd (subsidiary of Scottish and Southern Energy). Each partner carries one vote.

Finance

Viking Energy represents half of project. Shetland Charitable Trust holds 90% of shares. 10% of remaining shares held by 4 private investors. Viking Energy share of project is about £360. Initial capital stake will be around £70m. Remainder of investment to be financed through debt, borrowing and possible debt-bond issue.

Up side: Viking Energy have recently abandoned any claim to profit. Instead they talk of "community benefit". A vague, amorphous notion which has never been justified with any real financial models.

Down side: If the project fails, Shetland's exposure could be as high as £360m. With Charitable Trust total funds standing around £150m, this would spell financial ruin for Shetland now, and future generations to follow. It has never been spelt out where the initial £70m stake would come from. There is a danger that current Charitable Trust spending may have to be curtailed for years to come to finance this project.

From the point of view of community funds, this project is a reckless gamble at the expense of the environment, landscape of Shetland. Read more on the wind farm finances.

Environment

Sustainable Shetland is very concerned with:

Loss of cultural heritage landscape. The site will be visible across much of Shetland. From nearly one end of the islands to the other. At night the site will more resemble airport runways than rural hills.

Lost and damaged habitats. Plant, animal and bird and fish species within and beyond the site negatively impacted.

Peat is a carbon sink. Peat takes thousands of years to form, and actively stores and absorbs climate damaging CO2. Damaging peat on this scale releases large quantities of CO2. It is madness to damage ancient peat deposits for a so-called environmental project.

This project will create an adverse impact on the landscape of almost all of Shetland. A generation will grow up knowing nothing better than hilltops covered with wind turbines.

At least 73 miles of access roads (some up to 40 feet wide) are planned, up to 14 quarries, concrete batching plants, several construction camps, and ongoing site infrastructure such as control and sub-stations, set down areas, crane pads, a converter station, turbine foundations and towers, will cause substantial damage on the immediate and surrounding environment.