The Highlands are revolting!
Guest articles
19 Aug 2025
Written By Helen McDade
Over 50 community councils from across the Scottish Highlands and Islands have launched a campaign calling for a moratorium on renewable infrastructure throughout the region. At a packed meeting last week, the rage and despair were palpable. Residents from Skye to Inverness described how their communities had accepted many industrial renewables developments – only to have more, bigger, more intrusive developments proposed. The communities argue that a moratorium is essential until major changes to law and regulation in the area have been developed and consulted on.
To achieve the communities’ aims, significant changes would need to be made to planning regulations and energy policies, by both Scottish and UK governments. In particular, there has been almost no effort made to develop spatial strategies for renewable energy development in Scotland or the UK. This is possibly because it would severely inconvenience both governments and energy developers.
Currently, windfarm companies can target areas with sparse populations, and areas without National Park status seem to be considered fair game. These are now badly overloaded with speculative development applications, often deluged with multiple applications at a time. Severely impacted areas include Caithness, Moray and South Ayrshire.
https://www.netzerowatch.com/all-news/the-highlands-are-revolting
