The text below is the transcript from the '4 WHITELEE ONSHORE WIND' video. An audio-described version of the video is also available.
Video Title: 4 WHITELEE ONSHORE WIND
LAURA: Hi, I'm Laura Young, also known as Less Waste Laura, and for the past few years, I've tried to live an environmentally conscious lifestyle and advocate for climate justice. I'm journeying around the amazing Whitelee Wind Farm to learn more about the future of our energy and the net zero debate. Being outdoors on my electric bike in this wonderful environment is brilliant. The roots here themselves were actually designed by the experts who created the Glasgow Commonwealth Games tracks. Cyclists are actively encouraged across the whole site, and it's complimentary to riders on pedestrians.
I'm heading to meet Fiona Hepplewhite, the head of energy policy, and Richard Koiak, head of Onshore Development at ScottishPower Renewables. I'm meeting them at one of the forested areas of the wind farm. And I want to find out what role onshore wind can play in our energy transition…
Hi, how are you?
FIONA: I’m good thanks. How are you?
LAURA: I'm good, thank you so much for meeting me. It's great to see another part of the wind farm.
FIONA: Yeah, this is a really remote spot we're in as well.
LAURA: So I was wondering, could you tell me a bit more about what it is that you do?
FIONA: My job is the head of energy policy. So really I'm looking at what the government's policy is and making sure that the business knows or is aware of the opportunity around that policy and also trying to influence government policy so that we can continue to make investments in wind farms.
LAURA: Sounds so amazing. So how long has this Scottish power have been involved with renewable energy?
FIONA: We've actually been involved in renewables for about 20 years. Our first onshore wind farm was Carland Cross, which is in England, in Cornwall. And since then, we've just been building more and more and including this Whitelee, which we're at today, which is one of our largest in the UK.
LAURA: Oh, it's just brilliant to be here and hear a bit more about it. Oh, hi.
RICHARD: Sorry I'm late.
FIONA: This is my colleague, Richard.
LAUAR: Hi. How are you doing?
RICHARD: I was helping some kids who are lost with orientating. So, of course, I know the wind farm so well, I making sure they're going in the right direction.
LAURA: I need a bit of direction when I'm cycling round it. But it's nice to meet you.
RICHARD: You too.
LAURA: What is it that you do?
Richard: What I tell my kids id, is save the planet. What I do is the head of development team so very much my job is trying to convince people, which you think wouldn’t be that difficult, why we need more wind turbines. And it's showing to them here’s the jobs t’is going to create, here's what it’s going to do for the economy, and here's what's going to bring down electricity prices. Easy messages, but somehow the process is turning me greyer as I go.
LAURA: That was a good elevator pitch. So, I was hearing that, you know, you've been doing renewable energy for a while, you know, over 20 years. But it's always been the case?
FIONA: We used to be involved in fossil fuel generation. So we had a coal fired power station in Scotland and some gas fired power stations as well because their coal fired power station in 2016. And I guess that was part of our sort of journey onto, you know, being a responsible, sustainable developer. And we are now 100% just generating green power.
RICHARD: And that's why the evolution of the market is very much I remember we both started. It was sort of, oh, it's the crazy guys. I don't remember 20 years ago. And it's like. Yeah, it used to be a sort of niche and niche product.
FIONA: But now it's like, you know, we are the renewables is the backbone of the electricity power generation.
RIUCHARD: And the future.
LAURA: I've met so many amazing people on my trip today and hearing about how somewhere like that operates. But what else goes into building a place like Whitelee?
RICHARD: I see more work than you think.
FIONA: Far more work than you need.
RICHARD: It’s driven by a number of different parts. First part, understanding the site. You won't just plunk down. You pick a say sensitive. You've got to do the surveys. And because that sometimes takes a year or two years, that's some time. Then you've got to go through the consenting process, which historically has taken us four years from submission to consent. That's too long. I totally mean, look towards net zero plus. Then you need to go to market one year, two years plus in about two years, depending on the size of the project. And that's why for us, we started pushing really heavily last few years to try and grow, because you need to start to do this or trying to do is get people to say, you know what, we shouldn't need to push. You should be pulling us.
FIONA: Yeah. I mean, I think it's a given that we all need electricity to power our lives. And more so with electric batteries.
LAURA: My bike.
FIONA: I mean, it looks like a normal lamp, obviously. Does power and electricity your mobile phones. We just need more wind farms, basically more renewables to power our lives more generally. So, you know, the developing timescales really need to kind of come down if we're going to increase that capacity when we need it.
RICHARD: There's been such jumps in technology and what it can do, it’s about making sure. How do we get the best from that? How do we get the most megawatts, the most power with the least impact?
LAURA: So that's good for new ones. But what about the old ones, the ones that were made 20 years ago?
FIONA: hey will eventually come to the end of their operational life. You know, they only last 20, 25 years. So if we're not going to go backwards on generating low carbon electricity, we need to think about repowering. We need to think about life extensions, that kind of thing. So, yes, these are all kind of important factors when we think about kind of growing renewables capacity.
RICHARD: It’s not just about growing renewables capacity. Actually, it’s , as you said, long gannet, all these other plants are coming off, yet the power is coming down.
FIONA: Whilst the demand is going up.
RICHARD: Therefore, the price will go up. So we need to make sure he supply is going up as well.
LAURA: So you're ready to invest, you're ready to go?
RICHARD: I've got lots of money, I just need sites. I need councils to come with me. And that's what it’s about , it's like what we can do is try and bring people with us. It's about not imposing on people, bringing them with us.
LAURA: That's amazing. I know that Cop 26 is coming. Is that going to be a good thing for renewable energy?
FIONA: So COP 26 is a really important event, both for Scotland, for Glasgow, as we're hosting it, but from a global perspective, trying to come together to kind of, you know, come up with something that's going to help tackle climate change. I think in terms of policy, it really is something that can shine a light on the UK and Scottish government. You know, it shines a torch on some of the things that we've been talking about here today.
RICHARD: And my hope is it brings into reality what we have to do, because I think sometimes people go, oh this conference or it's 2030, people don't think and that sort of election cycle. But what we need them to do is we talk about how long these things take. We need to have people investing now or investing yesterday to deliver on net zero.
FIONA: Yeah, I think when we talk about net zero being sort of 2050, we think about it being quite a long time away. So, you know, not something that fixes kind of next week or next year. But like you say, because it takes us so long to build these wind farms. These are huge investments. We do definitely need sustained growth in the 2020s. And we need to we need kind of action now.
RICHARD: I'm planning my sites out for next year. So in my head, I'm a decade ahead already.
LAURA: Well, thank you so much. I know what I'm doing next, and especially before the weather comes in. So just a massive thanks for telling me little about this. It's just so interesting to see behind the scenes a little bit. See you later.
FIONA/RICHARD: Bye. See you later.
LAURA: I think every day is a school day. But I think I now understand even more, that wind farms like Whitelee really are greater than the sum of their parts. So, I feel I am getting a sense of just how much there is to know about onshore wind and how it is critical in our net zero journey. Join me next time as I endeavour to find out more.