14 September 2007
The Highlands and Islands of Scotland have the highest charges in Europe for connecting its renewable energy provision to the national energy grid, a new report has stated.
According to the study by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), producers of 'green' energy in the country's northern mainland "almost certainly" pay costs "many times greater" than in the rest of the UK - and 30 times higher than Denmark.
The report, entitled, European practices with grid connection, reinforcement, constraint and charging of renewable energy projects, also predicts connection costs for Scottish islands will be even higher. Indeed the study states: "Charging for the Scottish islands is arguably discriminatory and financially penalises (RE) generation very heavily".
Highlands and Islands Enterprise Head of Renewables, Elaine Hanton, expressed her concerns over these high connection charges that she feels will limit the development of renewable energy in these areas.
"The potential to produce marine and wind energy in coastal areas, offshore and on islands is absolutely vast," she said.
"These places have some of the strongest waves, tides and winds to be found anywhere in Europe, a fact which ought to be giving Scotland and the UK a natural advantage over our competitors.
"The current charging regime for UK grid connections pre-dates recent government commitments to increase our use of energy from renewable sources. The clear message emerging from our research is that it is time our charging practices were re-examined to be brought into line with other national energy priorities."
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