Turbine plan to cover one fifth of Shetlands

by Stephen Hurrell. Published Fri 24 Jul 2009 11:38, Last updated: 2009-07-24

Views across the islands could be ruined by turbines.

Leading charities have joined the fight to stop construction of a wind farm that could cover up to a fifth of the Shetland Isles.

The islands, a famed birdwatching spot, are the site chosen by Viking Energy for the installation of 150 turbines over 18,700 hectares.

The John Muir Trust, the UK’s leading wild land conservation charity, has warned of the potential cost to the environment and the devastating effect on the landscape of the Shetlands.

“The scale of this proposal is truly staggering and totally disproportionate for an island like Shetland,” said John Hutchison, Chairman for the John Muir Trust. “Shetland’s treeless landscape will be completely dominated by the development, with the turbines visible in a 15km radius around the wind farm.”

The erection of the turbines will disturb peat bogs, releasing large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Allen Fraser, a spokesperson for Shetland Geotours, said: “Viking Energy proposes to change our landscape for ever. Their badly sited scheme will continue to pollute for many, many years after the turbines are defunct.

“These 150 massive turbine bases will be 150 festering sores on the moorland where concrete will act like a cancer; each at the centre of an ever outward circle of wasting vegetation and peat eroding down to the bedrock.”

Viking Energy Chairman Bill Manson said: “The Viking Windfarm would be an investment in Shetland and very much for future generations in Shetland. It is based on Shetland's world-class wind resource."

However, the John Muir Trust has claimed Viking’s own estimate of the ‘carbon payback’ of disturbing the bog is between two and 15 years.

Hutchison added: “It is hardly worth destroying such a special, wild place for the relatively small amount of carbon that may be saved. Gigantic wind developments such as the Viking proposal should be sited on the UK mainland, away from deep peat and nearer to the consumers its electricity is for.”

The Trust is urging members of the public to object before the consultation period closes on Tuesday 28th July.