Onshore Wind Strategic Leadership Group minutes: December 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Dr Alasdair Allan MSP, Co-Chair, Minister for Climate Action
• Claire Mack, Co-Chair, Scottish Renewables
• Morag Watson, Sector Deal Lead, Scottish Renewables
• Megan Amundson, Head of Onshore Wind and Consenting, Scottish Renewables
• Jamie Blair, Sector Deal Project Manager, Scottish Renewables 
• Chris Morris, Community Energy Lead, Local Energy Scotland
• Heather Donald, G12 Representative, SSE
• John Boyce, G12 Representative, Renewable Energy Systems Ltd
• Darren Hemsley, NatureScot
• Simon Gill, The Energy Landscape 
• Sam Johnson, Technical Barriers Lead, Renewable Energy Systems Ltd
• Paul Cantwell, Circular Economy Lead, National Manufacturing Institute Scotland
• Neil Douglas, Scottish Renewables Sector Deal Support, BVG Associates
• Marcus Trinick KC, Planning Considerations Lead
• Onshore Electricity Policy, Scottish Government

Apologies

• Chris Mackie, SG Deputy Chair, Scottish Government 
• Robbie Kernahan, Land Use and Environmental Considerations Lead, NatureScot
• Paul Wheelhouse, Supply Chain, Skills and Circular Economy Lead, South of Scotland Enterprise

Items and actions

Welcome

The meeting was co-chaired by Dr Alasdair Allan, Minister for Climate Action and Claire Mack, Scottish Renewables (SR). Dr Allan set out the agenda and recognised the significant time commitment involved in participating in this group and expressed his gratitude for SLG members dedication and continued engagement.

He also highlighted that by working together to fulfil the commitments outlined in the Sector Deal, Scotland can make significant progress towards achieving our 2030 ambitions. He concluded his opening remarks by reiterating how he continues to be impressed by the strong collaboration between industry, government, and our agencies over the past year as we collectively work to deliver on the Sector Deal.

UK Government Taskforce

UK Government Taskforce met for the third time on 3 December, with the Scottish Government joining for the first time During this meeting, the taskforce ran through proposals from all thematic subgroups and will aim publish a report by February 2025 containing proposals to accelerate onshore wind deployment across the UK. 

The Taskforce discussed community benefits and Members noted the importance of making sure that approached to community benefit are consistent across the UK. 

The update on the Taskforce also noted the expectation of an imminent announcement from the UK Government on a clean power plan, which should reference the Eskdalemuir seismic array. 

Update: Community

The SLG communities theme lead advised Local Energy Scotland (LES) has published their community benefits and shared ownership register, following consultation with industry and key stakeholders. Industry is now uploading community benefit and shared ownership data into the register. This will be useful resource for communities and also for industry to community initiatives. LES and SR hosted training sessions for industry and Foundation Scotland, with around 100 attendees.

SG is currently leading work to develop a community shared ownership framework. There will be opportunities for the communities and industry to engage in the development process early in 2025 as work progresses. Finally, the communities theme lead highlighted to the group that there is currently around 40 MW of community shared ownership investment being considered across Scotland. 

Update: Circularity

The SR Sector Deal lead provided an update on the Sector Deal commitment to deliver at least one specialist blade treatment facility, noting that this has now been completed following discussions with ReBlade.

SR and industry have committed to progressing circularity of blades further through ongoing work around recycling of blades and collaboration with Suswind. SG is engaging with the UK Government to explore the role a regulatory stimulus could play in driving behavioural change in circularity. Work is ongoing within SG to publish a strategy document regarding circularity in onshore wind farm developments.

Update: Skills

The SR Sector Deal lead provided an update in relation to the skills commitments. They noted that SG officials are leading on this work and commissioned further research. The report is being finalised and prepared for publishing. SR and SG recently met and are looking at convening a roundtable with stakeholders early in the new year to discuss the findings arising from the report.

Update and discussion: Supply chain

SR provided an update on the sector’s commitment to identify a platform to publish local content data in relation to supply chains. Industry is gathering data at a project level for Scotland and UK local content, as well as looking at how to provide more granular local content data, which is a request of some local authorities.

There were discussions on the level of data that should be released publicly and the timescales on reaching an agreement on publication.

SR agreed to share proposals for local content data for 7 regions with SG.

Update: Planning

The SLG planning lead provided an update. The task and finish group working on streamlining Environmental Impact Assessment Reports (EIAR) has drafted a proposal, which is currently with ECU for review and comment. Once an agreement has been reached, ECU will publish the guidance.

Section 36 standardised template conditions are now back with ECU following the industry consultation. ECU are reflecting on comments received and hope to publish the agreed conditions in due course.

The first annual determination timelines meeting was held where a clear picture was given on current determination timelines and the reason for variation in timelines. The next meeting will be held in March/April to review timelines for determinations.

Update and discussion: Land use and environment

The SLG land use and environmental deputy lead provided an update. NatureScot have been commissioned by SG Planning officials to develop an adapted biodiversity metric suitable for use in supporting delivery of National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) policy 3b.

A commitment to create peatland guidance is being progressed through a subgroup of the Peatland Expert Advisory Group (PEAG), which is led by NatureScot. At present, there is an impasse on the way forward with the guidance due to trying to strike a balance between onshore wind developments, peatland protection and enhancement. The proposed 1:10 ratio is not supported by all PEAG members. SG have taken an action to try resolve the impasse through further conversations with the PEAG subgroup to understand the issues better and then discuss a way forward with co-chairs of PEAG.

SG, SR, and Nature Scot are also currently investigating the potential to harvest existing data from local authorities via the Improvement Service for a central data repository.

Given the potential substantial cost of using the service, SR, SG and NatureScot are engaging to ensure any potential data repository delivers value. There was a discussion on the value of collecting data, proportionality, and usefulness. It was acknowledged that there is no current mapping of where all constructed and proposed wind farms are.

Update and discussion: Legislative and regulatory

The SLG Legislative and Regulatory lead provided an update on the reconvening of the legislative change abnormal loads working group which comprises SG, SR, Police Scotland, and Transport Scotland. Police Scotland is looking at both the longer-term option of legislative change to allow agents other than police officers to escort the loads and shorter-term options for increasing the available resource within Police Scotland. Police Scotland is meeting with the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and SG to discuss next steps. The UK Onshore Wind Industry Task Force is also taking an active interest in this commitment.

Although SG has committed to undertaking a benchmarking exercise with the view to producing good practice guidance for oversail and overrun negotiations, difficulties have arisen regarding the evidence base for such a benchmarking exercise. It was acknowledged that oversail and overrun negotiations between developers and landowners vary in how they are conducted and how payments are structured. Negotiations are based on developer, project budget and the market value of the land, making it difficult to establish standards. Discussions are ongoing with UKG on what changes would look like. Dr Allan stated he was sympathetic to the issues industry were experiencing and assured the SLG that SG would continue to engage with stakeholders to find a solution.

Update: Technical

The SLG technical lead provided on update on the work of Onward 2030 Technical Group, who have been tasked with delivering some aviation related commitments. The groups first work package, the market survey of surveillance systems was completed in December 2024. The outstanding commitment to report on the national survey of aviation issues is with DESNZ and SG for review. The Aviation Lighting Assessment Guidance has been published on NatureScot’s website.

Ministry of Defence (MoD) is currently consulting on proposals regarding its approach to safeguarding the Eskdalemuir Seismic Array (EKA). SG will consult on its new EKA development management draft guidance once MoD is content that all the prerequisites have been met. The UK Government is also discussing EKA through the UK Onshore Wind Industry Task Force.

Any other business and close

It was acknowledged that the end of scheduled SLG meetings had been reached. The SG will work with SR on the next series of meetings in the new year. 
Dr Allan concluded the meeting and noted that most themes within the sector deal are progressing well, and the more challenging commitments have been identified and there are plans in place to progress them.

Actions

• industry to share proposals for local content and their proposals for 7 regions with SG
• SG to look at feedback from PEAG subgroup STAG to understand the issues and discuss with co-chairs of PEAG
• SG to have representation on work package 5 of the technical theme