PLAN­NING

Cairngorms Nation­al Park

Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021

Non-stat­utory guid­ance: Policy 7 – Renew­able Energy

Con­tents

How to use this guid­ance ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Intro­duc­tion and con­text……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Con­sid­er­a­tions for all renew­able energy pro­pos­als …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….3 Con­sid­er­a­tions for stand-alone renew­able energy devel­op­ments …………………………………………………………………………………………………4 Hydro-electricity…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….4 Energy from waste……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………6 Con­sid­er­a­tions for renew­able energy incor­por­ated into oth­er development………………………………………………………………………………6 Heat net­works ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..7 Wind energy……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..7 Biomass……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9 Sol­ar power (heat and electricity)………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..10 Heat pumps (air, ground, water) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………||

How to use this guidance

This non-stat­utory guid­ance sup­ports the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 and applies to all plan­ning applic­a­tions with­in the Cairngorms Nation­al Park that incor­por­ate renew­able energy sys­tems. The Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan is avail­able via https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​p​l​a​n​ning- development/​and should be read along­side this guidance.

The guid­ance deals only with renew­able energy pro­pos­als that require plan­ning per­mis­sion. In some cir­cum­stances, when added to exist­ing domest­ic build­ings or their garden ground some renew­able energy sys­tems are covered by per­mit­ted devel­op­ment rights and would not require plan­ning per­mis­sion. How­ever the rules around what is and is not per­mit­ted devel­op­ment are com­plex — inform­a­tion on which renew­able energy sys­tems have domest­ic per­mit­ted devel­op­ment rights can be found on the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment web­site via https://www.gov.scot/publications/guidance ‑house­hold­er-per­mit­ted-devel­op­ment- rights-9781780456836/pages/8/.

This guid­ance should be used to dur­ing the pre­par­a­tion and assess­ment of plan­ning applic­a­tions that include renew­able energy sys­tems that are not covered by per­mit­ted devel­op­ment rights, to ensure that the require­ments of Policy 7 are met.

Intro­duc­tion and context

Policy 7 of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 (over­leaf) provides the frame­work for how con­sid­er­a­tion of renew­able energy sys­tems should be incor­por­ated into devel­op­ment pro­pos­als. A range of renew­able energy sys­tems are iden­ti­fied in the policy and this guid­ance. They should not be viewed as an exhaust­ive list how­ever, as new tech­no­lo­gies may emerge dur­ing the life­time of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.

The policy applies to all devel­op­ments that incor­por­ate renew­able energy sys­tems that are not covered by per­mit­ted devel­op­ment rights. For example, new hous­ing devel­op­ments incor­por­at­ing air source heat pumps as part of the devel­op­ment, as well as those that are solely con­cerned with energy pro­duc­tion such as hydro-elec­tri­city or energy from waste developments.

All devel­op­ment pro­pos­als must demon­strate how they have avoided adverse impacts on land­scape, com­munity, nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age interests that make up the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Park. The fol­low­ing sec­tions of this guid­ance provide advice on what needs to be con­sidered for dif­fer­ent types of renew­able energy sys­tem and provides links to oth­er use­ful sources of information.

Policy 7 – Renew­able Energy

7.1 All renew­able energy developments

Pro­pos­als for renew­able energy gen­er­a­tion will be con­sidered favour­ably where: a) they con­trib­ute pos­it­ively to the min­im­isa­tion of cli­mate change;

b) they com­ple­ment the sus­tain­ab­il­ity cre­den­tials of the development;

c) they con­serve and enhance the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Park, includ­ing wildness;

d) they include appro­pri­ate means of access and traffic man­age­ment, includ­ing appro­pri­ate arrange­ments for con­struc­tion areas and compounds;

e) they adequately min­im­ise all cumu­lat­ive effects; and

f) they adequately min­im­ise det­ri­ment­al impacts on loc­al air qual­ity, par­tic­u­larly for pro­pos­als includ­ing com­bus­tion plants such as biomass.

Plan­ning con­di­tions and/​or fin­an­cial bonds will be used where appro­pri­ate to secure decom­mis­sion­ing and site restoration.

7.2 Hydro­power

In addi­tion, all hydro­power pro­pos­als must have no det­ri­ment­al impact on: a) the water environment;

b) the recre­ation­al use of the water environment;

c) peat and soil along the length of the scheme; and

d) the pas­sage of migrat­ory fish.

7.3 Wind energy

In addi­tion, all wind energy pro­pos­als must adequately min­im­ise: a) all noise impacts from the development;

b) all shad­ow flick­er caused as a res­ult of the devel­op­ment; and

c) the impact of the devel­op­ment on all avi­ation interests.

Large-scale com­mer­cial wind tur­bines’ are not com­pat­ible with the land­scape char­ac­ter or spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Nation­al Park and will not be supported.

7.4 Bio­mass

In addi­tion, all bio­mass pro­pos­als must include suf­fi­cient stor­age capa­city to min­im­ise the need for deliv­ery of the fuel to the site.

7.5 Energy from waste

In addi­tion, all waste energy pro­pos­als must: a) ensure they max­im­ise the energy pro­duced, dis­trib­ut­ing the energy with­in the loc­al­ity of the devel­op­ment; and

b) min­im­ise the impact of trans­port­ing the waste mater­i­al to and with­in the site.

7.6 Heat networks

The devel­op­ment of heat net­works will be encour­aged. Masterplans/​development briefs for major devel­op­ments should con­sider the feas­ib­il­ity of meet­ing heat­ing require­ments through a low car­bon dis­trict heat­ing scheme.

’ Defined as more than one tur­bine and more than 30m in height

Con­sid­er­a­tions for all renew­able energy proposals

Appro­pri­ately scaled’ and sited renew­able energy sys­tems that do not con­flict with the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Park are encour­aged. They have an import­ant role to play in decreas­ing car­bon emis­sions from energy pro­duc­tion, and so redu­cing the con­tri­bu­tion of the Park to cli­mate change.

All renew­able energy pro­pos­als should fol­low the mit­ig­a­tion hier­archy (fig­ure 1) from the out­set. This should enable schemes to be designed to avoid, min­im­ise or mit­ig­ate adverse effects on nat­ur­al, cul­tur­al, com­munity and land­scape fea­tures and interests.

Some renew­able energy schemes may fall with­in the cri­ter­ia that require detailed Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ment (EIA) and con­sents or licenses, as well as plan­ning permission.

Avoid Assess the site and design the lay­out to avoid sens­it­ive nat­ur­al, cul­tur­al, com­munity and land­scape fea­tures and interests.

Min­im­ise For the remain­ing area, design the devel­op­ment to min­im­ise neg­at­ive effects on sens­it­ive features.

Mitigate/​compensate Where avoid­ing or min­im­ising is not pos­sible, off set neg­at­ive effects through on-site mit­ig­a­tion or, as a last resort, off-site compensation.

Fig­ure 1: mit­ig­a­tion hierarchy

More inform­a­tion about EIA can be found on the NatureScot² web­site via https://www.nature.scot/professional- advice/­plan­ning-and- devel­op­ment/en­vir­on­ment­al- assess­ment/en­vir­on­ment­al-impact- assessment.

In addi­tion to using this guid­ance, cross ref­er­ence to oth­er Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan policies and their sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance (where present) will be required to ensure that rel­ev­ant issues are con­sidered. For example, Policy 3 design and place­mak­ing, Policy 4 nat­ur­al her­it­age, Policy 5 land­scape and Policy 9 cul­tur­al her­it­age may apply. Depend­ing on the pur­pose of the renew­ables pro­pos­al, Policy 2 sup­port­ing eco­nom­ic growth may also be relevant.

’ As stated in Policy 7, large scale com­mer­cial wind energy devel­op­ments are not com­pat­ible with the land­scape char­ac­ter or spe­cial land­scape qual­it­ies of the Park. Large scale is defined in the Policy as more than one tur­bine and more than 30m in height.

² formerly known as Scot­tish Nat­ur­al Heritage

Con­sid­er­a­tions for stand-alone renew­able energy developments

Stand-alone devel­op­ments are those with the sole func­tion of gen­er­at­ing energy, such as hydro-elec­tri­city schemes, energy from waste or bio­mass. Because of their com­par­at­ive size and the infra­struc­ture needed to sup­port them, these are more likely to require great­er con­sid­er­a­tion to avoid adverse impacts on land­scape, nat­ur­al her­it­age and com­munity interests that make up the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Park.

Lar­ger renew­able energy schemes such as hydro-elec­tri­city, energy from waste and bio­mass can res­ult in increases in traffic dur­ing con­struc­tion and oper­a­tion of the scheme. An assess­ment of the poten­tial impacts caused by changes to traffic move­ments and num­bers, as well as a traffic man­age­ment plan detail­ing meas­ures taken to avoid, min­im­ise or mit­ig­ate adverse impacts may be neces­sary to sup­port plan­ning applications.

Early engage­ment with the rel­ev­ant roads author­ity is strongly recom­men­ded where changes to traffic move­ments and num­bers is likely.

In addi­tion to traffic con­sid­er­a­tions, the fol­low­ing sec­tions of the guid­ance provide point­ers for what else should be con­sidered for dif­fer­ent types of energy pro­duc­tion scheme.

Hydro-elec­tri­city

Hydro-elec­tric schemes can involve sig­ni­fic­ant ground excav­a­tion dur­ing con­struc­tion, com­bined with the install­a­tion of above and below ground infra­struc­ture such as pipes and tracks (as shown in fig­ure 2). Without care­ful sit­ing, design, con­struc­tion and res­tor­a­tion meas­ures, this can res­ult in adverse impacts on land­scape, hab­it­ats, hydro­logy and spe­cies. A range of assess­ments should be car­ried out to inform hydro- elec­tri­city pro­pos­als so that they can be designed to avoid, min­im­ise or mit­ig­ate adverse impacts in accord­ance with the mit­ig­a­tion hier­archy (fig­ure 1).

Fig­ure 2 ‑hydro-elec­tri­city con­struc­tion site

Details of the assess­ments car­ried out and how they have been used to inform the design and lay­out of hydro-elec­tri­city schemes should be sub­mit­ted with plan­ning applic­a­tions as sup­port­ing information.

Assess­ments should include con­sid­er­a­tion of impacts dur­ing con­struc­tion and oper­a­tion of the pro­posed scheme, as well as wheth­er there could be cumu­lat­ive effects with oth­er devel­op­ment (exist­ing and proposed).

The level of assess­ment will vary depend­ing in the sens­it­iv­it­ies of the pro­posed devel­op­ment site and sur­round­ing area. Some schemes may require form­al detailed Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ment, while oth­ers may only require some of the assess­ments lis­ted below. Early engage­ment with the rel­ev­ant plan­ning author­ity is there­fore strongly recom­men­ded so that the level of assess­ment can be agreed at the earli­est stage.

The types of assess­ment that may be required include (but are not lim­ited to):

• Land­scape and visu­al impact assess­ment (LVIA), to assess effects on land­scape char­ac­ter and visu­al effects, as well as areas import­ant for land­scape interests such as Nation­al Scen­ic Areas and Wild Land Areas.

• Hab­it­ats and spe­cies, par­tic­u­larly those reli­ant on the water envir­on­ment such as fish, otter and lower plants asso­ci­ated with damp hab­it­ats, as well as ter­restri­al hab­it­ats and spe­cies that may be affected by the scheme dur­ing con­struc­tion and operation.

• Water envir­on­ment, such as changes to water levels and flow rates, as well as impacts on private water sup­plies and oth­er hydro-elec­tri­city schemes in the same catchment.

• Noise, par­tic­u­larly impacts on nearby prop­er­ties and com­munit­ies. Early engage­ment with the envir­on­ment­al health ser­vice of the rel­ev­ant plan­ning author­ity is encour­aged to ensure that rel­ev­ant assess­ments are car­ried out and the neces­sary inform­a­tion sub­mit­ted with plan­ning applications.

• Soils, both dir­ect effects such as excav­a­tion, as well as indir­ect effects through changes in hydro­logy affect­ing hab­it­ats that pro­tect or cre­ate soils, par­tic­u­larly car­bon rich soils such as peat and peat­land hab­it­ats that rely on high ground water levels.

• Recre­ation, both inform­al and organ­ised use of the water­course (fig­ure 3) and sur­round­ing land at the pro­posed devel­op­ment site, as well as up and down­stream effects.

Fig­ure 3‑kayakers on the River Tay

NatureScot and SEPA provide guid­ance and inform­a­tion that can be used to inform assess­ments as well as the design and loc­a­tion of hydro-elec­tri­city schemes, avail­able via https://www.nature.scot/professional- advice/­plan­ning-and-devel­op­ment/ad­vice- plan­ners-and-developer­s/re­new­able- energy-devel­op­ment/hy­dro­elec­tric-power and https://​www​.sepa​.org​.uk/​r​e​g​u​l​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​water /​hydropower/​.

The Land­scape Insti­tute provide advice on LVIA, avail­able via https://​www​.land​scapein​sti​tute​.org/​t​e​chnic al-resource/­land­scape-visu­al-impact- assessment/​. NatureScot provide inform­a­tion about Nation­al Scen­ic Areas via https://www.nature.scot/professional- advice/safe­guard­ing-pro­tec­ted-areas-and- spe­cies/­pro­tec­ted-areas/n­a­tion­al- des­ig­na­tion­s/n­a­tion­al-scen­ic-areas/n­a­tion­al- scenic-areas.

Advice for Wild Land Area assess­ments can be found via https://www.nature.scot/professional- advice/­land­scape/­land­scape-policy-and- guid­ance/assess­ing-impacts-wild-land- areas-draft-guidance.

Energy from waste

There are no sig­ni­fic­ant sources of waste with­in the Park, so energy from waste plants would require sig­ni­fic­ant trans­port of waste from out­with the Park to fuel them.

The Park is there­fore not con­sidered to be appro­pri­ate for large-scale energy from waste plants due to the traffic move­ments this would gen­er­ate. How­ever, energy from waste schemes that make use of a loc­al source of waste and where the energy/​heat being pro­duced is used in the loc­al­ity of the energy plant may be appro­pri­ate. They must be loc­ated to avoid hav­ing adverse effects from/​on traffic, noise, odour, water and air qual­ity from energy pro­duc­tion, deliv­ery and stor­age of waste.

SEPA provide advice and inform­a­tion in rela­tion to energy from waste schemes, avail­able via https://​www​.sepa​.org​.uk/​r​e​g​u​l​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​w​aste/ energy-from-waste/. Early engage­ment with SEPA and the envir­on­ment­al health ser­vice of the rel­ev­ant plan­ning author­ity is encour­aged to ensure that rel­ev­ant assess­ments are car­ried out and the neces­sary inform­a­tion sub­mit­ted with plan­ning applic­a­tions. For example, energy from waste pro­pos­als will require to be accom­pan­ied by an air qual­ity assessment.

Con­sid­er­a­tions for renew­able energy incor­por­ated into oth­er development

Smal­ler scale renew­able energy sys­tems are usu­ally part of wider devel­op­ment pro­pos­als, such as sol­ar pan­els, bio­mass boil­ers, ground or air source heat pumps incor­por­ated into pro­pos­als for a new hous­ing devel­op­ment. The fol­low­ing sec­tions of the guid­ance provide point­ers for what needs to be con­sidered for dif­fer­ent types of small scale energy pro­duc­tion incor­por­ated into oth­er devel­op­ment proposals.

Addi­tion­al advice and inform­a­tion can be found on the NatureScot web­site via https://www.nature.scot/professional- advice/­plan­ning-and-devel­op­ment/ad­vice- plan­ners-and-developer­s/re­new­able- energy-devel­op­ment/­mi­cro-renew­ables.

Heat net­works

Heat net­works can involve sig­ni­fic­ant ground excav­a­tion dur­ing con­struc­tion, com­bined with the install­a­tion of above and below ground infra­struc­ture such as pipes and build­ings to house heat production/​management sys­tems. How­ever heat net­works are usu­ally part of wider devel­op­ment, for example dis­trict heat­ing schemes for new hous­ing pro­pos­als. The impacts of installing a heat net­work can there­fore be reduced by care­ful integ­ra­tion into the wider con­struc­tion pro­gramme, so that repeat work­ing of areas of land can be avoided.

The main issues that may arise from heat net­work pro­pos­als are related to impacts on soils and water dur­ing con­struc­tion, and noise affect­ing neigh­bours dur­ing con­struc­tion and operation.

Depend­ing on the fuel source used, traffic may also be a con­sid­er­a­tion. An assess­ment of the poten­tial impacts caused by changes to traffic move­ments and num­bers, as well as a traffic man­age­ment plan detail­ing meas­ures taken to avoid, min­im­ise or mit­ig­ate adverse impacts may be neces­sary to sup­port plan­ning applic­a­tions where fuel needs to be reg­u­larly delivered to site.

Early engage­ment with the rel­ev­ant roads author­ity is strongly recom­men­ded where changes to traffic move­ments and num­bers is likely.

SEPA provide advice and inform­a­tion in rela­tion to energy from heat net­works that may be use­ful, avail­able via https://​www​.sepa​.org​.uk/​e​n​v​i​r​o​n​m​e​n​t​/land /plan­ning/ad­vice-for-developer­s/.

Wind energy

Appro­pri­ately sited wind energy devel­op­ment in the Park of one tur­bine under 30 metres in height to blade tip may be com­pat­ible with the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the Park. Wind energy may take the form of a free stand­ing wind tur­bine in garden ground or farm­land (fig­ure 4), or a tur­bine moun­ted on a building.

The first con­sid­er­a­tion for either type of wind tur­bine is wheth­er there is suf­fi­cient wind speed and wheth­er the wind flow is unim­peded. Trees and build­ings can cause tur­bu­lence that can affect the per­form­ance, so care­ful tur­bine sit­ing is required to ensure it will be viable.

Fig­ure 4 — free stand­ing small scale turbine

The Energy Sav­ing Trust provide advice on how to find out about wind speed and choos­ing a site, avail­able via https://​energysav​ingtrust​.org​.uk/​r​e​n​e​wable ‑energy/elec­tri­city/wind-tur­bines.

If a suit­able loc­a­tion is avail­able in rela­tion to wind speed and flow, then assess­ment of poten­tial impacts on a range of interests may be required so that the mit­ig­a­tion hier­archy (fig­ure 1) can be used.

The types of assess­ment that may be required include (but are not lim­ited to):

• Land­scape and visu­al impact assess­ment (LVIA), to assess visu­al effects and effects on land­scape char­ac­ter, as well as on areas import­ant for land­scape interests such as Nation­al Scen­ic Areas and Wild Land Areas.

• Hab­it­ats and spe­cies, par­tic­u­larly those that may be affected by the scheme dur­ing con­struc­tion and oper­a­tion. For example, sens­it­ive hab­it­ats may be dam­aged dur­ing install­a­tion of the base for free- stand­ing wind tur­bines and buri­al of elec­tri­city cables, either dir­ectly through ground excav­a­tion or indir­ectly through changes in hydro­logy. In addi­tion, bats and some spe­cies of birds make use of build­ings to roost and nest, so are at risk from col­li­sion with the mov­ing blades of build­ing moun­ted wind turbines,

³ Detail on which spe­cies are leg­ally pro­tec­ted, actions that can be offenses and the spe­cies licens­ing res­ult­ing in mor­tal­ity. Bats, and all wild bird spe­cies while nest­ing, are leg­ally pro­tec­ted³. This means that they must not be dis­turbed or oth­er­wise harmed. Bats and oth­er bird spe­cies are also at risk of col­li­sion from free-stand­ing wind tur­bines. Because the Park is home to rare and/​or sens­it­ive spe­cies and hab­it­ats, sur­veys car­ried out by appro­pri­ately exper­i­enced (and licensed where required) eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey­ors may be required to inform devel­op­ment proposals.

More inform­a­tion about nat­ur­al her­it­age interests (includ­ing pro­tec­ted spe­cies and licens­ing require­ments) can be found in Policy 4 of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and accom­pa­ny­ing Nat­ur­al Her­it­age sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance can be found via https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​p​l​a​n​ning- devel­op­ment/ldp-2021/.

• Soils, both dir­ect effects such as pro­cess: https://www.nature.scot/professional- advice/­plan­ning-and-devel­op­ment/­plan­ning-and- excav­a­tion, as well as indir­ect effects through changes in hydro­logy affect­ing hab­it­ats that pro­tect or cre­ate soils, par­tic­u­larly car­bon rich soils such as peat and peat­land hab­it­ats that rely on high ground water levels.

• Water envir­on­ment, where sig­ni­fic­ant ground excav­a­tion or cross­ing of water courses is required to bury elec­tri­city cables, this may dis­rupt ground water move­ment sup­port­ing sens­it­ive hab­it­ats and spe­cies, allow sed­i­ment to pol­lute water courses and/​or affect private water sup­plies in the vicinity.

• Noise, par­tic­u­larly impacts on nearby prop­er­ties and com­munit­ies. Early engage­ment with the envir­on­ment­al health ser­vice of the rel­ev­ant plan­ning author­ity is encour­aged to ensure that the neces­sary assess­ments are car­ried out and the required inform­a­tion sub­mit­ted with plan­ning applic­a­tions. devel­op­ment-advice/­plan­ning-and-devel­op­ment- protected-species

• Shad­ow flick­er, caused by the sun passing behind the tur­bine blades in cer­tain con­di­tions caus­ing a flick­er­ing effect in neigh­bour­ing prop­er­ties. This can usu­ally be avoided through appro­pri­ate sit­ing of more than II rotor dia­met­ers dis­tance between the tur­bine and the nearest occu­pied build­ing. Free-stand­ing wind tur­bines may require spe­cif­ic assess­ment to ensure it will not be a prob­lem at dis­tances less than || rotor diameters.

Details of the assess­ments car­ried out and how they have been used to inform the sit­ing of the wind tur­bine should be sub­mit­ted with plan­ning applic­a­tions as sup­port­ing inform­a­tion. Assess­ments should include con­sid­er­a­tion of impacts dur­ing con­struc­tion and oper­a­tion of the pro­posed scheme, as well as wheth­er there could be cumu­lat­ive effects with

⁴ In line with the High­land Coun­cil Onshore Wind Energy Sup­ple­ment­ary Guid­ance (2016) https://​www​.high​land​.gov​.uk/​d​i​r​e​c​t​o​r​y​_​r​e​c​o​r​d/712 079/​onshore_​wind_​energy, which used the find­ings oth­er devel­op­ment (exist­ing and proposed).

The level of assess­ment will vary depend­ing on the sens­it­iv­it­ies of the pro­posed devel­op­ment site and sur­round­ing area. Some wind tur­bine pro­pos­als may require form­al detailed Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ment (EIA), while oth­ers may only require some of the assess­ments lis­ted above. Early engage­ment with the rel­ev­ant plan­ning author­ity is there­fore strongly recom­men­ded so that the level of assess­ment can be agreed at the earli­est stage.

NatureScot provide advice for wind energy pro­pos­als of dif­fer­ent scales. Those most rel­ev­ant to wind energy devel­op­ment in the Park are avail­able via https://www.nature.scot/assessing-impact- small-scale-wind-energy-pro­pos­als-nat­ur­al- her­it­age and https://www.nature.scot/professional-

in the Depart­ment of Energy and Cli­mate Change report https://​webarchive​.nation​alarchives​.gov​.uk/​2​0​11040 5153950/http://​www​.decc​.gov​.uk/​e​n​/​c​o​n​t​e​n​t​/​cms/w advice/­plan­ning-and-devel­op­ment/ad­vice- plan­ners-and-developer­s/re­new­able- energy-devel­op­ment/­mi­cro-renew­ables.

Bio­mass

The type and source of bio­mass mater­i­al is an import­ant factor when con­sid­er­ing if bio­mass is an appro­pri­ate means of energy pro­duc­tion for a giv­en loc­a­tion. This is because one of the main bene­fits of energy from bio­mass is that it should be car­bon neutral.

How­ever, if sources of bio­mass in the loc­al­ity are lim­ited, the sup­ply of bio­mass can involve sig­ni­fic­ant trans­port­a­tion dis­tances, some­times from over­seas. Where this involves trans­port­a­tion powered by fossil fuels, it increases car­bon emis­sions and neg­ates the bene­fit of biomass.

Bio­mass energy schemes that are able to make use of loc­al sources of bio­mass hat_​we_​do/​uk_​supply/​energy_​mix/​renewable/​plan ning/on_off_wind/shadow_flicker/shadow_flicker.a spx

(fig­ure 5) and can demon­strate a long term sup­ply are more likely to be appro­pri­ate in the Park. Bio­mass energy should be loc­ated to avoid hav­ing adverse effects from/​on traffic, noise, odour, water and air qual­ity from energy pro­duc­tion, deliv­ery and stor­age of biomass.

Fig­ure 5 ‑felled trees at Ellan Wood, Carrbridge

NatureScot and SEPA provide advice and inform­a­tion in rela­tion to energy from bio­mass, avail­able via https://www.nature.scot/professional- advice/­plan­ning-and-devel­op­ment/ad­vice-

⁵ Details on which spe­cies are leg­ally pro­tec­ted, actions that can be offenses and the spe­cies licens­ing plan­ners-and-developer­s/re­new­able- energy-devel­op­ment/­mi­cro-renew­ables and https://​www​.sepa​.org​.uk/​e​n​v​i​r​o​n​m​e​n​t​/ener gy/renewable/#bio.

Sol­ar power (heat and electricity)

Sol­ar photo­vol­ta­ic pan­els that gen­er­ate elec­tri­city, and thermal pan­els that pro­duce heat tend to be moun­ted on build­ings and so have lim­ited poten­tial for neg­at­ive impacts. How­ever, as build­ings are used by bats and some spe­cies of birds to roost and nest, they are at risk from dis­turb­ance dur­ing install­a­tion and main­ten­ance of sol­ar pan­els. Bats, and all wild bird spe­cies while nest­ing, are leg­ally pro­tec­ted⁵ so must not be dis­turbed or oth­er­wise harmed. There­fore, con­sid­er­a­tion (and where neces­sary a sur­vey) by a suit­ably exper­i­enced and licensed eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey­or may be neces­sary to ensure that dis­turb­ance will not occur. pro­cess https://www.nature.scot/professional- advice/­plan­ning-and-devel­op­ment/­plan­ning-and- If moun­ted on the ground, the poten­tial for effects tends to increase with the scale of the array of pan­els. For example com­mer­cial sol­ar farms will have great­er effects due to their size when com­pared to small domest­ic scale array (fig­ure 6).

Fig­ure 6 — example of ground moun­ted domest­ic scale sol­ar pan­els (far left)

Assess­ment for the poten­tial for impacts on the fol­low­ing may be required:

• Land­scape and visu­al impact assess­ment (LVIA), to assess visu­al effects (par­tic­u­larly from glare from the sun reflect­ing off the pan­els) and effects on land­scape char­ac­ter, as well devel­op­ment-advice/­plan­ning-and-devel­op­ment- protected-species

as on areas import­ant for land­scape interests such as NSAs and WLAs.

• Hab­it­ats and spe­cies, par­tic­u­larly those that may be affected by con­struc­tion and main­ten­ance. For example, sens­it­ive hab­it­ats may be dam­aged dur­ing install­a­tion of the base for free-stand­ing sol­ar pan­els and buri­al of elec­tri­city cables, either dir­ectly through ground excav­a­tion or indir­ectly through changes in hydro­logy. Oth­er hab­it­ats may also be dam­aged that are import­ant for sens­it­ive spe­cies. Because the Park is home to rare and/​or sens­it­ive spe­cies and hab­it­ats, sur­veys car­ried out by appro­pri­ately exper­i­enced (and licensed where required) eco­lo­gic­al sur­vey­ors may be required to inform devel­op­ment pro­pos­als. More inform­a­tion can be found in Policy 4 of the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan and accom­pa­ny­ing Nat­ur­al Her­it­age sup­ple­ment­ary guid­ance avail­able via https://​cairngorms​.co​.uk/​p​l​a​n​ning- devel­op­ment/ldp-2021/.

• Soils, may be affected dir­ectly through excav­a­tion, as well as indir­ectly through changes in hydro­logy affect­ing hab­it­ats that pro­tect or cre­ate soils, par­tic­u­larly car­bon rich soils such as peat and peat­land hab­it­ats that rely on high ground water levels.

• Water envir­on­ment, as where sig­ni­fic­ant ground excav­a­tion or cross­ing of water courses is required to bury elec­tri­city cables, this may dis­rupt ground water move­ment sup­port­ing sens­it­ive hab­it­ats and spe­cies, allow sed­i­ment to pol­lute water courses and/​or affect private water sup­plies in the vicinity.

The level of assess­ment will vary depend­ing in the sens­it­iv­it­ies of the pro­posed devel­op­ment site and sur­round­ing area.

Most domest­ic scale sol­ar pan­els moun­ted on build­ings will require min­im­al assess­ment. How­ever lar­ger ground moun­ted sol­ar array pro­pos­als may require form­al detailed Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ment, while oth­ers may only require some of the assess­ments lis­ted above.

Early engage­ment with the rel­ev­ant plan­ning author­ity is there­fore strongly recom­men­ded for pro­pos­als in sens­it­ive loc­a­tions and those that are ground moun­ted, so that the level of assess­ment can be agreed at the earli­est stage.

NatureScot provide advice for sol­ar energy pro­pos­als avail­able via https://www.nature.scot/professional- advice/­plan­ning-and-devel­op­ment/­plan­ning- and-devel­op­ment-advice/re­new­able- energy/sol­ar-energy.

Heat pumps (air, ground, water)

Heat pumps extract heat from an extern­al source, using a sys­tem like a reverse fridge (fig­ure 7). They require elec­tri­city to run the heat exchange system.

Air and ground source heat pumps are usu­ally attached to or loc­ated close to the build­ing they are supplying.

Sys­tems should be loc­ated to ensure that they do not cause noise issues for neigh­bour­ing prop­er­ties dur­ing oper­a­tion, or impact on any areas pro­tec­ted for nat­ur­al, geo­lo­gic­al or cul­tur­al her­it­age interests.

As ground source heat pumps require ground excav­a­tions to install the heat loop, an assess­ment of the poten­tial effects on soils, water, hab­it­ats and spe­cies may be required.

Fig­ure 7 — indic­at­ive heat pump system

The con­sid­er­a­tions for poten­tial effects on soils, water, hab­it­ats and spe­cies are the same as for Sol­ar power (heat and electricity).

The impacts of installing a ground source heat pump as part of a wider devel­op­ment such as a new hous­ing devel­op­ment can be reduced by care­fully integ­ra­tion into the wider con­struc­tion pro­gramme, so that repeat work­ing of areas of land can be avoided.

In this respect the poten­tial impacts from excav­a­tions are sim­il­ar to those iden­ti­fied above for ground source heat pumps.

How­ever, as water requires to be abstrac­ted from and then returned to the water course, par­tic­u­lar atten­tion will be required as to poten­tial impacts on the water envir­on­ment and the hab­it­ats and spe­cies that rely on it.

There are a num­ber of water related areas pro­tec­ted for nature con­ser­va­tion in the Park, with many water­courses con­nec­ted to them requir­ing the same level of assess­ment to ensure that impacts do not affect the pro­tec­ted area up or down­stream of the pro­posed development.

SEPA provide advice on the reg­u­la­tions around abstrac­tion, avail­able via https://​www​.sepa​.org​.uk/​r​e​g​u​l​a​t​i​o​n​s​/​water /​abstractions/​.

NatureScot provide inform­a­tion about pro­tec­ted areas avail­able via https://www.nature.scot/professional- advice/­plan­ning-and-devel­op­ment/ad­vice- plan­ners-and-developer­s/­plan­ning-and- development-protected-areas.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 Non-stat­utory guid­ance Policy 7 – Renew­able Energy

This doc­u­ment is avail­able in large print on request. Please con­tact the Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity on 01479 873535. It is also avail­able to view at www​.cairngorms​.co​.uk

Pub­lished by Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity 14 The Square Grant­own-on-Spey PH26 3HG

Email: planning@​cairngorms.​co.​uk Tel: 01479 873535 Fax: 01479 873527

www​.cairngorms​.co​.uk

© CNPA 2021. All rights reserved.