More than 80 plants across England and Scotland were handed the so-called 'constraint payments', when supply outstrips demand, by National Grid, as thousands of buildings lying empty following the coronavirus lockdown contributed to a nosedive in demand for energy.

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Global growth in new renewable energy capacity will experience its first annual decline in 20 years this year amid the coronavirus pandemic but is expected to pick up next year, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday. The world is set to build fewer wind turbines, solar plants and other installations that produce renewable electricity this year as energy demand has been reduced across commercial and industrial sectors and logistics issues delay projects.

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London-listed The Renewables Infrastructure Group (TRIG) said on Friday it has completed the acquisition of a 36% stake in a 396 megawatt (MW) offshore wind farm in the German North Sea...TRIG also said it has exited from a Swedish onshore wind project being developed by Enercon due to construction delays.

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Communities have raised concerns about imminent plans to re-start work on a huge Scottish windfarm amidst a continuing coronavirus lockdown with imported Irish workers who they fear will not be tested.

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The MOD opposed the application for a time extension. Prior to bringing a petition for judicial review, the petitioner had engaged with the MOD to try and resolve the dispute by other means, but nothing had come of this. The petitioner was aware that their arguments were falling on deaf ears, had been aware of all relevant matters since at least May 2018, and judicial review had been in their contemplation since then. It had been inappropriate and unreasonable, having regard to the principle of good administration, to wait until the end of 2019 before raising proceedings.

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Today, wind farms are supplying around 32 per cent of the UK's electricity demand, producing more than 7,000 megawatts of power, however, the National Grid has noticed an oversupply of electricity during the lockdown. Homeowners are using more power domestically, but that is significantly less than the amount which would ordinarily be used by industry. National Grid has now warned that, on some days this summer, electricity demand may fall below the 'baseload' output from inflexible power plants, such as nuclear power reactors, which can take hours to shut down safely.

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Wind farm opposition groups across the north fear temporary changes in planning legislation will play into the hands of ‘unscrupulous developers’. Under the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act developers no longer have to mount public exhibitions of their plans, or make them available for physical inspection in places like libraries, services, and council offices due to the “significant risk of transmission of coronavirus”.

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Figures from the Scottish Government also revealed no new net capacity was added in the country between last June and December. Industry leaders have warned Scotland needs to quadruple its output if it is to wean its home heating and transport sectors off fossil fuels.

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Keltbray has demolished a giant wind turbine at Hunterston in Ayrshire.

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The factory should be one of the crown jewels in Scotland’s renewables industry as it manufactures onshore and offshore wind turbines, but it has been lying idle for months now. “It’s time the owners of CS Wind moved on to other shores to allow alternative ownership options to come forward, including forms of public ownership, so we can work towards guaranteeing the factory a successful future.”

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Plans to build a wind turbine farm on a famous First World War battlefield in northern France have been described as “revolting”. Tens of thousands of British soldiers were killed during the historic Battle of Cambrai and many of their bodies were never recovered.

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POWYS County Council (PCC) has been rapped over the knuckles by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for failing to respond to a request for information within the statutory time limit of 20 days.

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But fraudster Robert McKechnie, 72, took the money and ran, a court heard. He admitted three counts of fraud when he appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on Tuesday. Two involved Sydney, and a third against another victim, a woman from St Fergus, Aberdeenshire, who handed over £78,435. The turbines never materialised.

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He said he did not think Scottish projects would “provide sufficient supply chain demand to provide sustainable business for the supply chain”. SSE Renewables’ upcoming project, the 114-turbine Seagreen offshore wind farm off the coast of Montrose, has attracted criticism after correspondence appeared to show the lion’s share of jacket manufacturing work will be carried out at a huge yard in the Far East.

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In October, Orsted’s share price fell by more than 7pc when it warned that its wind farms were producing less power than expected. The company blamed this dip in production on the fact that wind turbines block each others wind, thereby decreasing its efficiency. Orsted suggested that phenomenon had been traditionally underestimated across the wind energy industry, which has been under pressure in recent times as bountiful government subsidies are swapped for competitive auction systems.

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Alex Salmond hailed it as a green revolution that would create clean energy and more jobs. But wind farms are now raking in more public cash than ever before – for not generating electricity at all.

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Yesterday, the firm’s partners Muirburn Energy held a drop-in session in the village hall to unveil rejigged plans to erect seven 4.2 megawatt turbines on the same site. The blade-tip height of the turbines has been cut from 139 metres to 125 metres while they have been set back further from both the A836 and the coastline.

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The predicted cost of decommissioning the UK’s offshore wind farms has already risen to about £4 billion, the audience heard at a conference in St Andrews yesterday.

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Objector David Craig said local people are furious about what they claim is a democratic ‘outrage’. The two schemes were the subject of a public local inquiry which attracted hundreds of objections and a 1,500-strong petition. Scottish Ministers approved the application by Infinergy and Boralex at Limekiln but rejected the 17-turbine scheme lodged by Drum Hollistan Renewables LLP.

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A wind farm developer has scaled back plans for a turbine extension in Moray following community feedback.

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