Why Build It?

SSE’s Griffin wind farm near Aberfeldy was completed in 2012. It has 68 Siemens 2.3MW turbines with a total installed capacity of 156.4MW The Viking Wind Farm will bring financial benefits to Shetland in the form of operational income and community benefit payments.^[1] While jobs will be created directly by the project, others may result from the additional income generated in the community.

Opportunities should also arise from further renewables projects which may become viable when the interconnector cable to the Scottish mainland is laid.

Hundreds of new wind farms like Viking’s are being built across the world every year to help reduce CO₂ emissions that are contributing towards the potentially catastrophic warming of the earth’s atmosphere.

With the volume of fossil fuels extracted from the North Sea now in decline,^[2] and west of Shetland discoveries not likely to reverse that trend, the UK is increasingly reliant on imports – especially of gas – to meet its energy needs.

As coal power stations and ageing nuclear power plants are taken off the electricity grid a key aim of government policy is to increase energy security by reducing dependence on other countries’ energy resources.

Onshore wind is a proven technology and therefore a vital component in increasing self-reliance and reducing the risk of price shocks which can swiftly drive up energy bills.