New gas-fired power station at Peterhead is approved
The application for the power station was consented on the same day that Holyrood debated the issues of climate change and climate justice.
The current Peterhead facility has been generating electricity for more than four decades but it is now the last in Scotland to burn fossil fuels.
SSE has previously said it intends to replace this site with the new ‘Peterhead 2’ – though climate campaigners have raised concerns that both facilities will continue operating together.
North East Scotland Green MSP Maggie Chapman said the existing gas-powered station was “Scotland’s largest source of climate pollution”.
She added that “instead of tackling that and reducing its impact, the government has decided to expand it”.
The decision was also condemned by campaign group Uplift.
A spokesperson said: “Our high dependency on expensive gas is what’s driving our energy bills up and leading to millions of people facing impossible choices this winter.
“So, it is inconceivable why the Scottish government would want to lock ourselves into 30 more years of it.”
A Scottish government spokesperson said the potential impacts on communities, nature and cultural heritage – including the cumulative effects of developments – were “important considerations” in the decision-making process.
They said the full grounds for the decision were set out in a letter and it “would not be appropriate to comment further”.
Finlay McCutcheon, managing director of SSE Thermal, said: “This is an important milestone for a project which has the potential to provide the flexible, low-carbon electricity needed to support a renewables-led energy system while creating and sustaining good jobs in the north-east of Scotland.”
John Underhill, Aberdeen University’s Director for Energy Transition, said the Scottish government’s decision demonstrated its acceptance that gas will be a “vital part of the country’s energy and electricity mix for decades to come” while acknowledging its climate obligations.
He said: “The decision also provides a much-needed lifeline for the Acorn project (Scottish cluster) too since it gives the latter a new purpose to store emissions from the Peterhead power station after losing supplies of emissions from Grangemouth and Mossmorran when they closed.”
