Why Northern Isles are fighting back against unfair deal on renewables

That at least is the theory – and yet people across Shetland have become accustomed to watching the massive wind farms constructed across our islands sitting unmoving, even as we pay for the privilege. As a toxic image designed to undermine local support for renewables, you could not ask for much better.

It is little wonder, then, that Shetlanders increasingly are coming to the view that there should be no more energy infrastructure on and around our islands – no more turbines or pylons – until we get a fair deal with meaningful local benefit to go with it.

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SNP’s inflated boasts

Shetlanders, by and large, have been as willing as any other part of the country to do our part to deliver the green energy that we need for the future. The problem is that we are already delivering some of the largest renewable projects in Scotland, with more on the way – and with little to show for it in terms of local benefit.

The isles supply much of the wind power that allows the SNP in Edinburgh to make inflated boasts about Scotland’s renewable electricity generation. Many Shetlanders living in the shadow of wind turbines, however, cannot afford to heat their own homes – while the turbine owners are paid not to generate power. That is surely a system that must change – and islanders are right to demand a halt to further construction until matters improve.

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Reform to the UK energy market as a whole is long overdue. Everyone should be able to feel the benefit of cheaper electricity from renewables, but there should also be scope for specific tariffs for places like Shetland, which generate so much power but suffer some of the highest rates of fuel poverty.

There are also policy challenges that the Scottish Government must take on. Chief amongst these is to allow for communities like ours, that host large-scale generation, to see a direct benefit from it. The mechanism is up for discussion but, one way or another, it should mean money back on energy bills for people affected by massive energy infrastructure.

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Fishing grounds could be lost

Nor is this an issue limited to dry land. The Crown Estate Scotland, which answers to SNP ministers in Edinburgh, is granting leases for use of the seabed to offshore windfarm developers. If they get their way then some of the isles’ best fishing grounds will be lost – and all because of a lack of accountability to local people.

What draws all these threads together is the principle of giving islanders a stake in energy decisions that affect us. Since the coming of North Sea oil, the Northern Isles have been at the heart of the UK’s energy policy. With the coming of renewables, that will continue to be so for decades to come – but it must come with benefits to local people.

Shetland’s unmoving wind turbines have become a symbol of a system that is not working for islanders. If we are going to move forward again, it must be on the basis of a fairer deal for the renewable energy that we provide this country.

Alistair Carmichael is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland