Too much to bear

When I was the MSP for Argyll & Bute I was involved in a lot of discussion about wind farms and electricity high voltage lines.    Both have an impact on the landscape but wheres the former have some supporters and can be sensitively sited, the latter are massively intrusive.   Moreover OfGen which regulates such things also imposes a penalty on generation, charging higher transmission fees for renewables producer the further they are from the South East of England so not only does the Scottish landscape suffer in order to get power from Scotland to the market , but Scottish  renewables generators (and ultimately the customers) suffer too.

This particular high voltage line takes electricity from renewable sources (wind farms entirely in this case) in Kintyre and exports it ultimately to customers all over the UK.   

I was active on behalf of the village of Tarbert on the issue because the people living there  did not wish to have pylons and cables dominating the view from both the West and East Lochs.  In the end however it proved   impossible to persuade the company to put the cable underground. 

Unfortunately , I now realise, not enough time was also spent on considering the impact on other parts of the route and my blip today shows the outcome.   It was taken from the  B8001 road to Skipness from Kennacraig , which I haven't been on for over a year and I have to admit it shocked me because it now looks like an industrial site.   I have added two extra photos just to show that it isn't a partial view - the damage stretches for a long way before the cables eventually veer south.    The view is probably as bad from there too. 

The old high voltage lines in Kintyre were damaged in a very bad snowstorm back in  March 2013 so I suspect part of the issue is the design of something more robust.   But the whole effect is far too much for a rural highland landscape to bear.   It should be a lesson for other communities, for their representatives and for the companies involved   (the one responsible for this line is SSE) and the UK Government  (which ultimately  regulates the energy industry) though I suspect they will continue to put profit before everything else.