Multiple new onshore wind power developments are set to destroy Scotland’s wild places and fragile habitats.
Inappropriately sited wind farms and their infrastructure are threatening to industrialise wild places we love, like Sandwood, Knoydart and the Monadhliaths near Cairngorms National Park.
This is resulting in habitat degradation, loss of biodiversity and increased carbon emissions. This is especially counterproductive when development is constructed on peatlands, which are essential for carbon storage.
A strong voice for wild places is essential to address the interconnected challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss while also achieving the UK’s climate goals.
Once our wild places are gone, they can’t be replaced.
Please help us and join the fight to protect wild places.
David Fleetwood, Director of Policy, John Muir Trust:
“In 1983 the John Muir Trust was founded in
response to threats to wild land in Knoydart. Over 40 years later, that threat to wild places and the communities that support them is greater than ever. We need your help to continue the fight today.”
Your donations will help build our capacity to:
1. Produce campaign materials
To help us raise awareness of the threat to wild places across the UK from inappropriately sited onshore wind farms.
2. Engage with decision makers
To make the case that developments for further wind power shouldn’t come at the cost of our wild places.
3. Develop a Wild Places Index
To provide an objective assessment of the condition of wild places throughout the UK, the threats they face and evidenced strategies and management plans to improve their condition.
Windfarm position statement
Find our position on renewables here.
Fighting back - wind farms threaten wild places
Scotland’s renowned landscapes and nature are under significant threat from a renewables industry that is meant to provide solutions to the climate and biodiversity crises rather than add to them.
While renewable energy is essential in tackling climate change, it must be developed in the right locations. The continued siting of large-scale wind farms in wild places risks further damaging these irreplaceable landscapes, harming biodiversity and degrading already vulnerable natural carbon sinks.
The speed and scale of wind power development is pushing these areas towards a tipping point. If left to the current regulatory system and economic interests, Scotland’s wild places will become industrial landscapes generating power for export at increasing cost to the natural environment.
It is with this threat in mind that the Trust has launched a new appeal to help build a fighting fund to help us campaign against the industrialisation of wild places with increased vigour.
Multiple threats
Large-scale wind farms threaten in ways that go well beyond just their visual impact. The extensive access roads, transmission lines and other infrastructure required can result in severe habitat degradation and fragmentation, affecting the movement and behaviour of wildlife. Bat and bird strikes can also be an issue, especially for migratory species.
Meanwhile, the construction of industrial-scale, onshore wind energy developments on and around peatland is the very definition of questionable green energy: while the carbon costs of development onareas of peatland are, at best, underestimated, the permanent natural carbon and rare habitat loss is both certain and irrecoverable.
Peatlands are among the world’s most important natural carbon stores, capable of storing up to 10 times more carbon per hectare than the equivalent area of forests. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, peatlands store more carbon than all the world’s vegetation combined – despite covering only 3 per cent of the Earth’s land surface.
And Scotland has more of this habitat than most, with peatland covering more than a fifth of the country’s total land mass. Collectively, it holds the bulk of Scotland’s carbon store – estimated to be the equivalent of 140 years’ worth of total annual greenhouse gas emissions.
The Scottish Government’s carbon calculator, which is used to support the process for determining the siting of wind farm developments, may underestimate the actual emissions from damaged peatlands. First published in 2008 and most recently updated in 2016, the calculator was designed to give decision-makers a better understanding of the carbon pollution caused by a development and to weigh up whether the carbon savings could justify the harm done to the landscape.
However, as scientific understanding of how built development impacts the structure of peatland and its carbon storing ability has improved, there have been calls for the Scottish Government to update the calculator further so that it generates a more accurate assessment of a development’s overall emissions.
In the meantime, the Trust’s position is clear: to protect such valuable ecosystems and maximise their carbon sequestration potential, there should be a presumption against large-scale onshore wind development on peatland.
Climate goals
There is no doubt that onshore wind development has played a vital role in decarbonising Scotland’s power sector and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, achieving Scotland’s climate change targets requires a comprehensive approach that goes beyond just expanding renewable energy capacity.
While onshore wind power remains important, the primary gains in reducing emissions come from decarbonising other sectors such as transport, buildings and agriculture. A holistic approach is essential to achieve Scotland’s climate goals and address the interconnected challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss.
Repowering existing wind farms offers the potential to increase onshore wind capacity without harming Scotland’s wild places. This involves replacing older turbines with taller and more efficient ones, which can generate more electricity. Repowering just 2.5GW of existing capacity could gain Scotland an additional 5-7.5GW of new capacity.
By prioritising repowering in areas where infrastructure already exists and coordinating efforts through energy clusters, it will be possible to minimise the need for new developments in wild places. This approach ensures that Scotland can achieve its renewable energy targets without compromising its precious natural assets.
According to Scottish Renewables, Scotland is already home to 48 per cent of the UK’s wind power capacity, which provides over 30 per cent of the UK’s national power supply. Following the recent leasing rounds for offshore wind, Scotland will install an additional 11GW of capacity by 2030.
In 2023, Scotland’s energy consumption from renewable sources outstripped other domestic sources. This was a hugely significant success in decarbonisation of the energy sector. Scotland is now more than self-sufficient in electricity, which begs the question as to why more of its wild places should be sacrificed for the development of wind power for export elsewhere.
Local communities
Rural communities have lived in harmony with wild places on their doorsteps and with pride in their environment for generations. It is unlikely that local communities want towering wind turbines in the landscape as a legacy for future generations. What’s important is that future generations are able to continue to live in these landscapes.
To oppose the threats to wild places, we are working on how we can better objectively assess the state of wild places and the threats which they face at national, regional and local level.
Our new appeal will help us deliver this work. With support, we will be better able to make the case that developments for further wind power should not come at the cost of Scotland’s wild places. We will also be able to raise awareness of the threat to land in our care and wild places across the UK from inappropriately sited industrial developments, and build the case for wild places with an index that will provide an objective assessment of their health throughout the UK, the threats they face and evidenced strategies and management plans to improve their condition.
Please help us by joining this fight to protect wild places because, once they are gone, they cannot be replaced.