Giant wind farm ‘will kill hundreds of seabirds a yr and push puffins to the brink of extinction’, warns RSPB
A giant wind farm will push puffins and kittiwakes in Scotland to the edge of extinction, the RSPB has warned.
Ed Miliband announced a subsidy deal for the Berwick Bank project, on the east coast, which the charity said was the ‘deadliest’ for birds.
The site near the English border – which is four times the size of Edinburgh – is central to the Energy Secretary’s target of clean power by 2030.
It comes as families have been warned they are locked into higher energy prices after Mr Miliband announced the biggest ever expansion of offshore wind farms on Wednesday.
On the Berwick site, the RSPB said it was an ‘absolute disgrace that public money will be used to support what is predicted to be one of the world’s most damaging wind farms for birds’.
Berwick Bank will eventually have 300 turbines with a capacity of 4.1 gigawatts, which would make it the biggest offshore wind farm in the world.
But it is situated close to seabird feeding areas near to Bass Rock, home to one of the world’s biggest gannet colonies.
Scottish government figures show that, when completed, Berwick Bank could kill 2,808 guillemots, 814 kittiwakes, 260 gannets, 154 razorbills, and 65 puffins in a single year.
A giant wind farmwill push puffins and kittiwakes in Scotland to the edge of extinction, the RSPB has warned
Seabird numbers are already in decline in Scotland, which is home to 75 per cent of Atlantic puffins in Britain and Ireland.
Puffins in Scotland have fallen by a fifth over the last two decades. Anne McCall, director of RSPB Scotland has called Berwick Bank ‘the deadliest wind farm for birds’.
She said: ‘A development that will kill tens of thousands of seabirds over its lifetime and push species like kittiwakes and puffins closer to extinction in Scotland is unsupportable on every level.’
However SSE, the Scottish energy company developing the Berwick Bank wind farm, said: ‘Berwick Bank has been meticulously designed and its delivery will combat climate change, which is the biggest threat to seabirds.’
The Energy Secretary announced contracts for six new wind farms which could add £1.8billion a year to bills.
Households and businesses will pay a fixed price – the highest for offshore wind in a decade – for the next 20 years under the contracts.
This means that consumers will lose out if gas prices dip at a time when bills are already higher than in other countries.
The auction secured 8.4GW of offshore wind – the amount experts said was needed to keep the Government on track to meet its ‘clean power’ pledge by 2030. Prices for offshore wind would be fixed at around £95/MWh in today’s prices, they said.
The warning from the animal project comes as Ed Miliband announced a subsidy deal for the Berwick Bank project
Shadow energy spokesman Claire Coutinho said Mr Miliband cared more about his ‘clean energy vanity project’ than lowering bills.
‘These are the highest prices for offshore wind in a decade and higher than the current cost of electricity,’ she said.
She accused him of ‘cementing our uncompetitive electricity prices’ and underplaying the true cost of wind.
