Danny Alexander has defended the proliferation of windfarms in the north – and expressed his “frustration” at Conservative opposition to green-energy schemes.
He said the renewables agenda was “fundamentally important” to the Liberal Democrats.
And he warned sceptics on the Tory back benches that their attempts to block such schemes were “not on”.
Mr Alexander, the chief secretary to the Treasury, was speaking on the first day of the conference, on Saturday.
Today, he will go further and move a policy motion censuring the Conservatives — including his boss, George Osborne — over their “refusal” to recognise that investing in green technology is important for long-term growth.
The Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey MP was asked about windfarms by delegates at a question and answer session on Saturday.
He said: “We are rightly seeing a proliferation of those things – of the wind, of the solar and so on. In the Highlands there’s a lot of windfarms and so on being constructed.
“I think this is a fundamentally important agenda for us as a party. The development of renewable energy, it’s something which ticks a lot of boxes.
“Obviously from a carbon reduction point of view it’s important, but from a growth point of view it’s important too.
“It’s something I’m getting a bit frustrated about,” he said.
“I think too often you hear Conservative back benchers and so on saying ‘we can’t have any windfarms’ and ‘we can’t have any of that’. Well it’s just not on.”
“We have to make sure as a government and a country we deliver on this agenda.”