Skelmonae Windfarm

Skelmonae Windfarm aims to generate clean, renewable electricity from onshore wind turbines, to supply the National Grid. The Scottish Government had already set some ambitious targets, such as aiming to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, when in May 2011 the First Minister, Alex Salmond, announced that, "Because the pace of development has be... en so rapid, with our 2011 target already exceeded, we can now commit to generating the equivalent of 100% of Scotland's own electricity demand from renewable resources by 2020. By then we intend to be generating twice as much electricity as Scotland needs - just over half of it from renewables, and just under half from other conventional sources. We will be exporting as much electricity as we consume", he explained. Alongside this, the UK has a growing requirement for electricity and its fossil fuel supplies are dwindling. The Chief Executive of Ofgem, the energy regulator, warned back in October 2009 that new EU pollution rules would force the closure of a quarter of UK power stations by 2015 and that the UK could soon begin to experience energy shortfalls at times of high demand, such that Britain could be forced to ration power to industrial users in order to conserve scarce electricity supplies for households. In practice, the resulting closure of a number of coal power stations indeed led to the announcement by Ofgem in December 2013 that National Grid would begin encouraging businesses to cut their power use on weekday evenings from 4pm-8pm, in return for cash discounts, in an attempt to avoid wider power blackouts during the winter.Read More