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Energy - Engagement version

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Top­ic: Energy

Engage­ment ver­sion Novem­ber 2024

Require­ments addressed in this sec­tion Table 1 Inform­a­tion required by the Town and Coun­try Plan­ning (Scot­land) Act 1997, as amended, regard­ing the issue addressed in this section.

Sec­tionRequire­ment
Sec­tion 15(5)(b)the prin­cip­al pur­poses for which the land is used,
Sec­tion 15(5)(d)the infra­struc­ture of the dis­trict (includ­ing com­mu­nic­a­tions, trans­port and drain­age sys­tems, sys­tems for the sup­ply of water and energy, and health care and edu­ca­tion facilities).
Sec­tion 15(5)(e)how that infra­struc­ture is used.

Links to evidence

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Sum­mary of evid­ence Policy con­text Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000

The Nation­al Park has four dis­tinct aims as set out in The Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000). The first and forth aims; ​‘to con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area’ and ​‘to pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the area’s com­munit­ies’. The aims are all to be pur­sued col­lect­ively. How­ever, if there is con­flict between the first aim and any of the oth­ers, great­er weight is giv­en to the first aim (as set out in Sec­tion 9(6) of the 2000 Act).

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 aims to ​‘to encour­age, pro­mote and facil­it­ate all forms of renew­able energy devel­op­ment onshore and off­shore. This includes energy gen­er­a­tion, stor­age, new and replace­ment trans­mis­sion and dis­tri­bu­tion infra­struc­ture and emer­ging low-car­bon and zero emis­sions tech­no­lo­gies includ­ing hydro­gen and car­bon cap­ture util­isa­tion and stor­age (CCUS)’.

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 states that loc­al devel­op­ment plans should seek to real­ise their area’s full poten­tial for elec­tri­city and heat from renew­able, low car­bon and zero emis­sion sources by identi­fy­ing a range of oppor­tun­it­ies for energy development.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Policy 11 (a) spe­cific­ally addresses energy and states that pro­pos­als for all forms of renew­able, low-car­bon and zero emis­sion tech­no­lo­gies should be sup­por­ted. Policy 11 (a) ii. States in rela­tion devel­op­ment pro­pos­als for all forms of renew­able, low-car­bon and zero emis­sions tech­no­lo­gies enabling works, such as grid trans­mis­sion and dis­tri­bu­tion infra­struc­ture will be sup­por­ted. With regard to the Cairngorms Nation­al Park, Policy 11(b) states that wind farms in Nation­al Parks will not be sup­por­ted. Policy 11 (b) sets out the need for devel­op­ment pro­pos­als to max­im­ise net eco­nom­ic benefit.

Policy 11 (d) states devel­op­ment pro­pos­als that impact on inter­na­tion­al or nation­al des­ig­na­tions will be assessed in rela­tion to Policy 4. The inter­na­tion­al and nation­al nature des­ig­na­tions in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park will be detailed in the Nat­ur­al Her­it­age sec­tion of the Evid­ence Report. Finally, Policy 11 (e) sets out the design and mit­ig­a­tion criteria.

Policy 11 states that sig­ni­fic­ant weight should be placed on the con­tri­bu­tion of the pro­pos­al to renew­able energy gen­er­a­tion tar­gets and on green­house gas emis­sions reduc­tion targets.

In the case of pro­pos­als for new or improve­ments to exist­ing grid infra­struc­ture, it would be prefer­able for under­ground con­nec­tions to be util­ised where possible.

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Policy 19 addresses Heat­ing and cool­ing. The Policy aims to ​‘To encour­age, pro­mote and facil­it­ate devel­op­ment that sup­ports decar­bon­ised solu­tions to heat and cool­ing demand and ensure adapt­a­tion to more extreme tem­per­at­ures’. There is there­fore a con­nec­tion between Policy 11 and Policy 19 in terms of energy demand. Mat­ters spe­cific­ally relat­ing to heat­ing and cool­ing are covered in the Heat­ing and cool­ing evid­ence report¹.

Policy 18: Infra­struc­ture First has also been con­sidered as a key con­nec­tion to this paper in con­nec­tion with the infra­struc­ture capa­city of the energy net­works in the Nation­al Park. To sup­port Policy 18 loc­al devel­op­ment plans should be based on an integ­rated infra­struc­ture first approach. SSEN Trans­mis­sion and SSEN Dis­tri­bu­tion as the trans­mis­sion and dis­tri­bu­tion pro­viders of the energy net­works in and serving the Nation­al Park have informed the pre­par­a­tion of this paper.

¹ See https://​cairngormsldp​.com​mon​place​.is/​e​n​-​G​B​/​p​r​o​p​o​s​a​l​s​/​h​e​a​t​i​n​g​-​a​n​d​-​c​o​o​l​i​n​g​-​s​u​r​v​e​y​/​step1

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Policy 2: Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adap­tion also has a bear­ing on the plans and strategies out­lines in this sec­tion. Over­arch­ing mat­ters related in Policy 2 will be covered in a sep­ar­ate Cli­mate change evid­ence paper.

The North region’s spa­tial pri­or­it­ies, which cov­er the Nation­al Park and are rel­ev­ant to this policy area are:

  • Pro­tect envir­on­ment­al assets and stim­u­late invest­ment in nat­ur­al and engin­eered solu­tions to cli­mate change and nature res­tor­a­tion, whilst decar­bon­ising trans­port and build­ing resi­li­ent connections.
  • Sup­port loc­al eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment by mak­ing sus­tain­able use of the areas’ world­class envir­on­ment­al assets to innov­ate and lead green­er growth.

The fol­low­ing nation­al devel­op­ments are also iden­ti­fied to sup­port deliv­ery of the spa­tial strategy for the North region. Of rel­ev­ance to this policy area are:

  • Nation­al Devel­op­ment 2: Pumped Hydro Stor­age, which aims to play a sig­ni­fic­ant role in bal­an­cing and optim­ising elec­tri­city gen­er­a­tion and main­tain­ing the oper­ab­il­ity of the elec­tri­city sys­tem as part of Scotland’s trans­ition to net zero.
  • Nation­al Devel­op­ment 3: Stra­tegic Renew­able Elec­tri­city Gen­er­a­tion and Trans­mis­sion Infra­struc­ture, which aims to sup­port renew­able elec­tri­city gen­er­a­tion, repower­ing, and expan­sion of the elec­tri­city grid.
  • Nation­al Devel­op­ment 4: Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy Mater­i­al Man­age­ment Facil­it­ies, which aims to sup­port the devel­op­ment of facil­it­ies required to achieve a cir­cu­lar eco­nomy. This sec­tor will provide a range of busi­ness, skills and employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies as part of a just trans­ition to a net zero economy.

Secur­ing a green recov­ery on a path to net zero: cli­mate change plan 2018 – 2032 update The doc­u­ment provides an update to the 2018 Cli­mate Change Plan. Since that Plan Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment have set new ambi­tious tar­gets to end its con­tri­bu­tion to cli­mate change by 2045. Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment have com­mit­ted to reduce emis­sions by 75% by 2030 (com­pared with 1990) and to net zero by 2045. As Scot­land emerged from COV­ID-19 the Gov­ern­ment iden­ti­fied an oppor­tun­ity to rebuild the eco­nomy in a way that deliv­ers a green­er, fairer and more equal soci­ety. This Plan sets out the Gov­ern­ments approach to deliv­er­ing a green recov­ery and sets out a path­way to deliv­er its cli­mate change tar­gets. In line with the 2018 plan, the focus is on the peri­od up to 2032.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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With regards to elec­tri­city the update high­lights that as Scot­land trans­itions to net zero, a grow­ing and increas­ingly decar­bon­ised elec­tri­city sec­tor is crit­ic­al to enabling oth­er parts of the eco­nomy to decar­bon­ise – not­ably trans­port, build­ings and industry.

The Plan also out­lines that in order for Scot­land to meet its cli­mate change tar­gets there needs to be shift from a low to a zero-car­bon elec­tri­city sys­tem, with the poten­tial for Neg­at­ive Emis­sion Tech­no­lo­gies to deliv­er neg­at­ive emis­sions from the elec­tri­city sec­tor, for example through the use of bioen­ergy for elec­tri­city gen­er­a­tion com­bined with car­bon cap­ture and stor­age (BECCS).

The Update sets out the fol­low­ing vis­ion that renew­able gen­er­a­tion will increase sub­stan­tially between now and 2032, and Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment expect to see the devel­op­ment of between 11 and 16 GW of capa­city dur­ing this peri­od, help­ing to decar­bon­ise the trans­port and heat­ing energy demand.

To deliv­er this, the Plan sets out a num­ber of out­comes, that are sup­por­ted by policies and pro­pos­als, relat­ing to elec­tri­city. These are as follows.

The out­come ​‘The elec­tri­city sys­tem will be powered by a high pen­et­ra­tion of renew­ables, aided by a range of flex­ible and respons­ive tech­no­lo­gies’, is sup­por­ted by the fol­low­ing policies and proposals:

  • Sup­port the devel­op­ment of a wide range of renew­able tech­no­lo­gies by address­ing cur­rent and future chal­lenges, includ­ing mar­ket and policy barriers.
  • Sup­port improve­ments to elec­tri­city gen­er­a­tion and net­work asset man­age­ment, includ­ing net­work char­ging and access arrange­ments that encour­age the deploy­ment and viab­il­ity of renew­ables pro­jects in Scotland.
  • Pub­lish a revised and updated Energy Strategy, reflect­ing our com­mit­ment to net zero and key decisions on the path­ways to take us there.
  • Devel­op and pub­lish a Hydro­gen Policy State­ment by the end of 2020, fol­lowed by a Hydro­gen Action Plan dur­ing 2021.
  • A new renew­able, all energy con­sump­tion tar­get of 50% by 2030, cov­er­ing elec­tri­city, heat and transport.
  • Intro­duce a new frame­work of sup­port for energy tech­no­logy innov­a­tion, deliv­er­ing a step change in emer­ging tech­no­lo­gies fund­ing to sup­port the innov­a­tion and com­mer­cial­isa­tion of renew­able energy gen­er­a­tion, stor­age and supply.
  • Renewed focus on devel­op­ing loc­al energy pro­jects and mod­els, includ­ing through the Com­munity and Renew­able Energy Scheme (CARES), sup­port­ing the achieve­ment of 1GW and 2GW of renew­able energy being in Loc­al Com­munity own­er­ship by 2020 and 2030.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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  • We will carry out detailed research, devel­op­ment and ana­lys­is dur­ing 2021 to improve our under­stand­ing of the poten­tial to deliv­er neg­at­ive emis­sions from the elec­tri­city sector.
  • We will con­tin­ue to review our energy con­sent­ing pro­cesses, mak­ing fur­ther improve­ments and effi­cien­cies where pos­sible, and seek­ing to reduce determ­in­a­tion times­cales for com­plex elec­tri­city gen­er­a­tion and net­work infra­struc­ture applications.
  • Accel­er­ate our work with avi­ation, energy and oth­er stake­hold­ers to ensure that all radars are wind tur­bine tolerant/​neutral dur­ing the com­ing decade.
  • Review and pub­lish an updated Elec­tri­city Gen­er­a­tion Policy State­ment ahead of the next Cli­mate Change Plan.

The out­come ​‘Scotland’s elec­tri­city sup­ply is secure and flex­ible, with a sys­tem robust against fluc­tu­ations and interruptions

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