Wind power: see how energy generation shapes the north

White wind turbines rise above golden moorland beside a gravel track, beneath a blue sky streaked with white clouds.

A car passing on the A9 briefly drowns out the enormous wind turbine we have stopped beside, which often surprises guests encountering a wind farm close up for the first time. South of Thurso, we get out of the Land Rover, switch off the engine and listen, giving ourselves something more useful to discuss than its appearance through the windscreen. These machines are changing the North Highland landscape, but their contribution extends far beyond it. Taken together, the region’s operational onshore wind farms could generate roughly the annual household electricity needs of a million homes.

That estimate allows for changing winds rather than assuming the turbines run at full output all year. Their electricity enters a shared grid, helping supply people who may never see the landscapes producing it, just as we depend upon goods and services from elsewhere. Personally, I find turbines rather elegant and consider them the least-worst alternative. Living near Dounreay certainly influences that opinion, because we all need electricity, and somewhere must accommodate the means of generating it.

There are benefits closer to home too. Through my local community council, I served on the panel considering applications to the Stroupster Wind Farm fund, whose annual contribution began at £149,500 and rises with inflation. That money can support play facilities, educational trips and training, including people preparing for another career. I received modest help towards my own college studies, so I know the difference it can make. Even a selection of published wind-farm funding arrangements across the North Highlands amounts to roughly £3 million annually, before counting wages and business contracts.

Nor must all that money be spent immediately. At Stroupster, some is retained and invested for the longer term, allowing benefits to continue beyond the generating life of the turbines. The North can therefore help meet electricity needs elsewhere while building resources for its own children and grandchildren. That doesn’t make every proposed wind farm appropriate, but it gives us more to consider than whether we like the view. In the audio blogcast, I explain what considering funding applications revealed about local needs, how I benefited myself, and why keeping money for the future matters alongside making grants today.

To learn more, listen to the blogcast or book one of our North Coast Explorer tours.