BT, the giant communication company, has agreed a £300m deal to buy enough energy to meet the needs of all its Scottish operations for the next 20 years from a wind farm being completed in the Borders. The company will buy 50% of the electricity generated by the 48-turbine Fallago Rig scheme near Lauder, which is just north of the border between Scotland and England.
BT Scotland director Brendan Dick said the deal gave the company “long-term” price certainty, something they had been seeking for their future plans. 20 years is certainly long-term! He said the firm was keen to meet its energy needs in an “environmentally responsible way”. BT is a major consumer of electricity, using around 170 Gigawatt hours (GWh) per annum in Scotland. Mr Dick said:
“At BT we use the power of communications to make a better world. Our deal with Fallago Rig reinforces our commitment to make a positive contribution to society and the environment.”
Fergus Ewing is the Scottish Energy Minister. He said:
“It is great news for Scotland and the environment that a company the size of BT is taking a local and sustainable approach to sourcing its electricity in Scotland from renewable and low carbon sources. With EDF Energy and BT now sharing 100% of the energy produced by Fallago Rig, it also secures generation at the site for the long-term future and shows the importance of Scottish renewable energy to Scottish-based businesses and their customers.”
Fallago Rig is one of the largest onshore wind farms in the UK and is majority owned by funds managed by Hermes GPE Infrastructure.
EDF Energy Renewables continues to own a minority stake in the wind farm and will continue to manage the site by providing the very important operations, maintenance services and asset management.
The development was one of the most controversial ever taken forward in the Scottish Borders and was the subject of a six-year opposition campaign. Opponents eventually admitted defeat after a Court of Session ruling which rejected their bid to force a judicial review of approval for the project. But at the end of the day it will prove itself to be a great advance in Scotland’s push to be one of the greenest countries on the planet.
BT probably doesn’t need much introduction as it is one of the world’s leading communications services companies, serving customers in the UK and in more than 170 countries worldwide. They have been active on climate change since the 1990s and are pursuing a number of ways of cutting our carbon emissions. They have a carbon strategy that includes reducing their UK carbon emissions by 80% from baseline 1996 levels by 2016 and reducing global carbon intensity by 80% by 2020.
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