The Scottish Government has commented on the Electricity Market Reform (ERM) white paper, published by the Department for Energy and Climate Change. It notes that the proposals will result in windfall profits for existing nuclear generators.

"Scottish ministers are clear in their opposition to the development of new nuclear power stations in Scotland and believe it is crucial that investment is not diverted from renewable to nuclear generation. 

"Given the indirect support which will accrue to nuclear generators under the Carbon Price Floor, there should be no additional support for nuclear through the proposed Contract for Difference (CfD) mechanism.
 
Feed in Tariff with Contract for Difference (FiT CfD)
The Scottish Government welcomes the principle of providing long term price certainty for low carbon generation, and accepts a FiT CfD approach could work to give an appropriate and necessary level of support for specific types of renewable technologies.
 
"The Scottish Government has executively devolved powers to make the Renewables Obligation (RO) Order which regulates the RO in Scotland.  While the banding levels set under the RO are largely consistent across the UK, the Scottish Government has set different levels for wave and tidal generation than those which apply in England and Wales.

"This is working well in Scotland.  The electricity sector and investors are comfortable with it and it has led to a significant and sustained increase in renewables deployment.
 
"The Scottish Government is determined to ensure that the transition from the RO to the FiT CfD does not undermine the significant economic opportunity offered to Scotland by renewable development. 

"To this end, it will continue to work with UK Government on how the FiT CfD can work effectively in Scotland, delivering the necessary support for renewable technologies, particularly less mature technologies such as wave and tidal generation.

"The Scottish Government will work with DECC to clarify whether a FiT CfD mechanism will deliver an equivalent level of support as under the RO, before determining the future of the RO in Scotland.
 
"The Scottish Government has particular concerns over the impact of transition from the RO to CfD on developments under the Crown Estate’s Scottish Territorial Waters and Round 3 leasing rounds. 

"The UK Government has proposed that the RO be closed as of 31 March 2017, with phasing arrangements allowing developments with existing accredited turbines to register the remaining unregistered turbines of the consented capacity and ”grace periods” for developers experiencing project or deployment delays and challenges.

"The Scottish Government will work on how these and other transitional arrangements toward a CfD system are robust enough to enable Round 3 and Scottish Territorial Waters offshore developers to make key investment decisions up to 2020.
 
"The RO would not be extended beyond 2037 meaning that any turbines accessing the phasing arrangements would receive less than the normal 20 years of support. 

"Developments with no accredited turbines as of 31 March 2017 would not be able to receive support under the RO. This could be an issue given that the period from 2017 is likely to see significant new offshore developments. For that reason, we will use our RO Banding review consultation to seek industry views and explore this. "

One issue that still remains undecided is the important aspect of power grids and power links to island wind and water based generating sites.

The 2009 National Planning Framework refers to electricity grid reinforcements, including upgrades on the Beauly to Dounreay and Beauly to Keith transmission lines, as well as new sub-sea cable links between Orkney, the Outer Hebrides, the Shetland Islands and the mainland.

Given the potential of the natural environment of the Highlands and Islands to generate renewable power, several objectives are related to energy generation.

Key elements include co-ordinated action to harness the marine renewable energy potential of the Pentland Firth and noting that the Moray Firth has been identified in other plans as an area with potential for off-shore wind development.

But for the Western Isles, sub-sea power cables could impact on the amazing inhabitants already identified which include blue and horse mussel, sea pens and burrowing megafauna, flame shell beds, burrowing heart urchins, burrowing sea cucumbers, native oyster beds, not to mention seagrass beds, sea loch egg wrack, and tide swept algal communities.

The proposed sub-sea cable running from Lewis, cross the sea into Little Loch Broom on the west Highlands coast  to land around Dundonnel, near Ullapool.

The connector would allow electricity generated by wind farms and marine energy schemes and surplus to the islands' needs to be exported to the mainland.

However, Scottish Hydro-Electric Transmission Limited (SHETL), a subsidiary of Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), put plans for the interconnector on hold last year as it required the cost to be underwritten by the developers.

It may be no bad thing that any subsea cable to be laid will have a chance to pays cognisance to the subea inhabitants.