Noise challenges facing a new Government: Net Zero

Beauly is an attractive village just 12 miles west of Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. I know it well. My uncle and aunt used to live in the adjoining village of Muir-of-Ord.? My family would visit them at least once a year. Legend has it the Beauly got its name when Mary Queen of Scots visited it in 1564. She exclaimed “c’est un beau lieu” –“this is a beautiful place”.

Today the talk is of the Beauly Buzz. In the spring of 2023 Scottish and Southern Energy Networks dropped a bombshell on stunned communities right across the Highlands, with proposals to build hundreds of giant pylons across iconic landscapes and through peaceful villages. All three 400kv lines are intended to converge at Beauly.

Decarbonising the Grid

It is all part of plans to decarbonise Britain’s electricity grid which Labour wants to do by 2030. In essence, the UK will need to build a backbone of pylons to transport energy from its source to areas of population. So, for example, pylons will run from northeast Scotland to northwest England to transport electricity from new offshore wind farms. The pylons will largely carry wind energy though nuclear and solar will use them as well.

?Demand for electricity in the UK is expected to double in the coming decade as natural gas, petrol and diesel are phased out and we switch to heat pumps and electric cars as well as the electrification of industry and increased reliance on digital data. The current grid was built to carry fossil fuels. Thus, the new pylons

? Noisy, New Turbines

And they will be huge….and noisy. The Daily Telegraph went to the West Country (‘In Somerset, noisy new net zero pylons are marching across the countryside – and locals are not happy’, Tom Haynes, 13/5/23).

?The Telegraph reported:

?Pylons of any kind generate audible whistling noise in high wind speeds and a buzzing noise in moisture. But T-pylon cables are gathered closer to the ground and residents have complained the effect is far worse than previously installed lattice pylons.

?One resident said: ‘On a wet day you can feel your brain frying.’ Others talked of ‘a horrid, whistling noise’. Some had sold up and moved away.

?Decarbonising the grid would be hugely expensive, with estimates of over ￡100 billion. There is real scepticism that Labour will be able to do it by its target date of 2030. The alternative to pylons is to transport the energy underground but that would be even more expensive.

Public in the dark?

If this new plan for energy does go through, there will be real noise impacts. We’ve already explored the fears around a big expansion of onshore wind: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/noise-challenges-facing-new-government-energy-john-stewart-ogr8e/.? Off-shore wind also is not quiet (though it tends to impact mammals rather than humans). There are continuing concerns about heat pumps. And now it is clear the huge new pylons will be noisy.

Isn’t it time it is spelt out to the public the all-round noise impacts of decarbonising the grid to accommodate net zero.