Onshore wind developers are urging the UK government to clarify the 2035 onshore wind permitted capacity for Scotland in the Clean Power Action Plan.
A group of 13 developers have signed an open letter to UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband amid concerns of a “de-facto ban” on Scottish onshore wind post-2030.
The signatories include Low Carbon, OnPath, EDP Renewables, Muirhall Energy and Voltalia, among others.
In the letter, they state: “Currently, the cap in the Plan will allow only 700MW of additional Scottish onshore wind capacity to connect between 2031 and 2035.
“This would result in a decrease in the rate of installations allowed after 2030 of over 90%, and amounts to a de-facto ban on Scottish onshore wind post-2030.
“Even more perversely, the caps are so low that many Scottish onshore wind projects that have already submitted planning applications will be told that they are no longer needed and that they will be kicked out of the grid queue.
“This includes projects with existing connection dates of around 2030 that are on track to contribute to the Government’s ambitious mission for Clean Power by 2030.
“The 2035 cap on Scottish onshore wind not only risks hundreds of millions of pounds of investment that has already been committed to or spent on developing projects, it would switch off billions of pounds of planned investment and would undermine the government’s ultimate goal of speeding up the deployment of clean power.
“This appears particularly absurd, given the hundreds of jobs that can be created from one of the fastest and lowest cost forms of generating clean power.”
The developers are urging the government to increase the 2035 cap for Scottish onshore wind in the Plan before the end of May 2025.
“Without this action, many well-advanced Scottish onshore wind projects will be kicked out of the grid queue, including projects that are on-track to deliver by 2030,” they wrote.
NESO and the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) have indicated that the 2035 figures may be revised through the upcoming Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP).
However, the onshore wind developers warned that the SSEP will be published too late for projects intending to deliver in the early 2030s.
“The SSEP is also very unlikely to capture all development given the widely distributed nature of onshore wind developments and should only ever be indicative and not comprehensive,” they added.
The SSEP is due to be published in Q4 2026, which would mean additional grid offers being issued in Q3 2027.
“This is far too late for Scottish onshore wind projects seeking to connect in 2031, 2032 or 2033, taking into account timelines for consenting, procurement and construction,” the developers added.
They welcomed recent statements from DESNZ head of mission control Chris Stark, who told a recent Institute for Government panel event that it was “certainly not the intention” to apply a de-facto ban on onshore wind in Scotland post-2030.
Stark also emphasised that DESNZ sees “opportunities to grow the supply of onshore wind quite significantly” across both Scotland and England.
However, the letter states that this contradicts what is currently in the Clean Power Action Plan – and the developers are calling for clarification from the government.