Demand for wind turbines on remote Scottish sites remains strong despite a 5% cut in subsidies for onshore wind developments, claims a leading consultant.
According to Gordon Stewart, head of renewables at property management firm Bidwells, wind developers will continue to seek out potential Scottish sites and leasing out land for wind will continue to be lucrative for landowners.
He said that although the cut to subsidy support for onshore wind was not welcomed by industry, it did not signal the “death knell of onshore windfarming” or anything like it.
“Overall the changes are likely to shift the pattern of demand rather than lead to its demise, making low lying southern marginal sites less viable and pushing developer interest back towards the more remote, exposed areas of the north,” he said.
“This will be welcomed in the Home Counties but will do nothing to ease demand for developing on ‘wild land’ here in Scotland.”
Leasing out land for onshore wind projects, would remain an attractive prospect for landowners, said Mr Stewart.
The proposed 5% cut to onshore wind subsidies was minimal in comparison to the 50% cut support for the solar industry announced in 2011, he said.
“The newly announced subsidised price of £95/MWh for onshore windfarms until March 2017, and even the £90/MWh subsidised price thereafter, are in fact substantially more than landowners currently accommodating windfarms operated by the main European utility companies receive today under the Renewables Obligation mechanism,” said Mr Stewart.
Bidwells’ experience to date showed that landowners leasing out land to independent wind developers received a much higher market rate for the electricity produced, which was crucial when the rental value was linked to the earnings of the generator, he added.
“What this means for landowners is that renting out land to onshore wind developers can still be financially beneficial provided they enter into a contract in the full knowledge of what that developer expects to be paid for the electricity produced,” said Mr Stewart.
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