THERE is too much concentration on wind farms and not enough attention paid to other renewable in Scotland, according to Dumfriesshire MP David Mundell.
He was speaking after a fact finding tour of the Steven’s Croft biomass plant near Lockerbie, a project that is worth around £1.2 million to the local economy.
Steven's Croft is the biggest biomass plant in Scotland and generates enough electricity to power the equivalent of 70,000 homes every year.
“One of the most common complaints at my surgeries concerns wind farms. People in this area genuinely feel enough is enough. Not only does my constituency have one of the largest onshore wind farms in Europe, but also a large number of other significant developments build or planned and these are a serious bone of contention with people in this area.
“They want to see other forms of green energy being developed, and Steven’s Croft is a case in point,” said Mr Mundell.
The £90m scheme, which was opened by Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond, displaces up to 140,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases every year.
Steven's Croft also saw a further significant investment in local and regional economy. It created 40 direct jobs and helps to maintain up to 300 indirect jobs in the local forestry industry. Local farming also benefits from the long term, low risk energy crop initiative developed by E.ON.
In December 2007, Steven's Croft was named Scotland's best renewable energy project at Scottish Renewables' Green Energy Awards.
The E.ON UK Renewable Ltd project involves the use of various renewable wood based fuels including forest wood and agricultural residues, urban wastes and energy crops, all of which are readily available in the local area.
“With this project having been opened by the First Minister the Scottish government are obviously aware of the benefits of schemes such as this. Now we have so many concerns about the large number of wind farms being developed in Scotland, plus concerns that they could have an adverse impact on Scotland’s important tourism market, surely there should be some serious consideration given to developing more of these plants. They are providing jobs locally as well as sustaining many others, which is more than can be said about wind farms,” added the MP.