Hansard

Tom Johnston brought about his hydro power revolution as a result of the particular conditions of total war, when landlord opposition could be waved aside in the national interest. Members who read the House of Lords Hansard from that period will see that opposition. No one has quoted that yet, but I remember it well as I studied that period when I was a history student.

Johnston had the approval of the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and pressed home his advantage to create 54 main power stations by 1965 and 78 dams. At the peak, 12,000 workers were employed in their construction. However, in the 1950s, a Tory Government returned and duly set up a select committee on the issue, because it deplored the social clause in the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board’s constitution as an interference in the market.

The Government latched on to an obscure report by an economist from the University of Aberdeen that used complicated and biased means to prove that the relative cost of hydro was far greater than that of nuclear power. Indeed, Denys Munby’s paper claimed that nuclear power would make hydroelectric stations

“built at a very great capital cost ... as obsolete as the horse and carriage in fifty years time.”

Of course, he—like many people at that time—did not know much about the implications and environmental impact of nuclear power.

The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board pressed on with its plans, but it was stopped in its tracks in 1960, when the Tory Secretary of State for Scotland, John Maclay, took the whole electricity strategy to a Cabinet economic sub-committee. The committee stopped the River Nevis scheme, which would have extracted water and sent it to be stored at a power station near Fort William.

The Nevis scheme offers an example of an early campaign on landscape led by the National Trust for Scotland. Bill Murray, who wrote the book “Highland Landscape” for the NTS in 1962, called the Nevis gorge

“one of the principal scenic wonders of Scotland.”

The issue of appropriate development, with which we are very familiar today, was broached at that time.

The Mackenzie committee proposed that there should be one electricity board for Scotland and that the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board should go. However, a campaign in the Highlands raised the fiery cross via the electricity consultative council for the area, and people gathered round to save the board for another day.

A Labour Government was then elected, but it did not promote hydro. It called a public inquiry into the Fada-Fionn scheme in Wester Ross, and the Treasury stacked the figures by proposing an 8 per cent return on capital, so the inquiry found against the scheme. There was not a lot of opposition to the scheme from mountaineers or fishing interests at that time, although such views might have changed today.

Harold Wilson came in on the “white heat” of technology. He did not go back to the Johnston policy; instead, he supported nuclear power.

I come to the present. This weekend’s Herald magazine, New Era, quoted no figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change in London for the cost per megawatt of installed power from hydro. It quoted figures for other sources such as onshore wind, nuclear and so on, but one cannot see where hydro fits into the picture. That is probably because there is only 130MW of capacity installed in England, whereas more than 1,300MW is installed in Scotland, so hydro is not a priority down south.

However, SSE has kept the faith and has refurbished dams and power plants. It has also created the Glendoe system, which we visited in 2009, and which—despite the problems with its tunnel—has produced electricity since 2012 as a major scheme in the Highlands. It is vital in helping the Scottish Government to meet its target for 100 per cent of energy from renewables by 2020, and it is a partner for intermittent wave and wind power. It is also a key part of an integrated electricity policy that suits Scotland’s needs.

There has been much talk about smaller schemes. There are a large number of them, many of which are in my constituency. A press release that was issued today said that one of the turbines in the Maldie Burn scheme, which the Duke of Westminster created, will run from this month. In that scheme, 2MW is used to power his lodge at Achfary and go on to the grid.

Unfortunately, however, only £80,000 in community benefit will come from the scheme over its life. We have to ask whether everyone involved in hydro schemes—as well as those involved in wind, wave and tidal schemes—should pay at least £5,000 per megawatt installed.

In my area, close to where I live, the Black Rock gorge scheme on Munro Ferguson’s Novar estate is nearly complete at 3.5MW. The Glasa scheme in Kildermorie—which the minister mentioned—is also close by, and has a capacity of 7MW. The numbers are adding up.

The Assynt Crofters Trust community scheme has had to overcome problems in respect of the great northern diver and other SNH concerns about wildlife, but it is now up and running for the community. The Lael Forest community hydro project near Ullapool is proposed to operate in places where old schemes had existed, and a public ballot will decide later this week whether that should go ahead for the community’s benefit.

The national problems of uncertainty about FIT from DECC show that capacity-based degression decreases the incentive to invest in hydro and many other schemes. Another uncertainty is that a pumped-storage tariff has not yet been created. We should recognise that it is entirely possible in this day and age to see the certainty that has been created by sticking to 1 ROC for hydro development in Scotland, not 0.7 ROCs, as a result of the Scottish Government’s far-sighted belief in an integrated policy.

“The Hydro” by Peter Payne quoted Sir Christopher Hinton as saying, in opening the Glenmoriston scheme in 1958:

“In 20, 30 and 50 years hence people... will say how tremendously fortunate it was that the water power development took place when it did.”

That was true then and it is very true today.

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