Energy / Almost 40 per cent of potential wind power never reaches the grid
Why build more wind farms when the infrastructure is not in place, Sustainable Shetland chair questions
A LONG-STANDING campaigner against the Viking project in Shetland has questioned the wisdom of building more wind farms in the North of Scotland.
Frank Hay, chair of Sustainable Shetland, said energy policy in Scotland and the UK was “rapidly turning into a complete shambles”.
It comes on the back of a report by energy analysts Montel that reveals almost half of the potential energy output from wind in the North of Scotland was curtailed in the first six months of 2025 due to bottlenecks and restrictions in the network.
The four million megawatt hours (MWh) that could have been produced during this period would have been enough to power all the Scottish domestic electricity demand, the analysts say.
Overall, 4.6 TWh (terawatt hours) have been curtailed across Britain, with 86 per cent of that volume located in Northern Scotland, including Shetland.
These latest figures reflect long-held criticisms from local people, with the 103 Viking turbines – connected to the national grid only last summer – often standing idle.
“For those of us who observe how the likes of the Viking wind farm is performing this comes as no surprise,” Hay told Shetland News.
“Notably, gales in summer increase constraints dramatically. Over the past three weeks Viking has hardly moved at all.”
Generating companies such as Viking owner SSE Renewables have received £116 million curtailment payment between January and the end of June 2025, an increase of 15 per cent on the same period the previous year.
In the report, which can be found here, the authors explain that due to the “limited grid infrastructure” to transfer power from Scotland to where it is needed in England, “generators in Scotland are therefore often turned down” as part of what is called the national grid’s balancing mechanism.
“As increasing amounts of wind generation capacity have come online, total curtailment of wind output in northern Scotland has reached almost 50 per cent of what is available in some months,” the report says.
“This would be enough to power all Scottish domestic electricity demand over the six-month period, representing around 37 per cent of all energy from wind that could have been used.
“This means that only 63 per cent of the energy which could have been generated made it to the grid.”
They added: “Because most wind farms in GB are in receipt of subsidies, [system operator] NESO will, in most cases, pay the farms a value similar to that of their subsidies to turn down.
“These payments are paid for by energy consumers as part of their electricity bill.”
Hay said: “Why keep on building more and more wind farms without the necessary infrastructure in place?
“First Minister [John Swinney] continues to reject calls for a moratorium on new developments.
“Further expansion of the wind fleet can only lead to more constraints for the foreseeable future as costs mount up for energy consumers.
“Energy production in this country is rapidly turning into a complete shambles with vast sums of money being wasted.”
With the rollout of wind projects in Scotland showing no sign of slowing down, and the Scotwind leasing rounds potentially adding as much as 30 GW capacity, the grid congestion is set to continue.
“These projects alone would increase the total Scottish wind generation capacity more than threefold,” Montel said.
“If local flexibility and grid capacity were to remain at current levels, curtailment volumes and cost could rise by a similar order of magnitude.”
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