A big decision is approaching for Scotland’s political class as the first generation of wind farms approaches a major crossroads.

Wind turbines have a typical working life of around twenty-five years which means that the existing 8,000MW of onshore wind farms will soon need to be replaced with turbine models that are newer and more efficient.

This ‘repowering’ of wind farms is not a mere mechanical or technical exercise, however, although the large corporate players would like you to think so, with new planning consents and leases being waved through.

It is, instead, a golden opportunity to rethink the wind industry in Scotland and to ensure that much more of the vast profits generated is kept and re-invested in our local communities and in our national economy.

This is the big question behind the headlines about a new social enterprise, Cowal Community Energy (CCE), seeking to take over the 30MW wind farm site at Cruadh Mhor, currently occupied by Scottish........

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