The Great Energy Transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy has numerous dimensions: jobs lost and others created, electric vehicles, biofuelled planes, scrapped gas boilers and triple glazing.
And where these skirmishes used to be isolated to one or at most two communities affected by a wind farm, the campaigns are now strung along routes, like beacons. That cable under the Minch makes landfall at Dundonnell, south of Ullapool, and will run underground from west to east coasts, where a large plant will transfer its direct current to the alternating current on which the rest of the grid works.
Going south from Beauly, a high-voltage line has been part of the national electricity grid since 2015. Others are not interested in mitigations, but want the industrialisation of the Highlands to stop, saying the developer has not proven a need for so much intrusion into the landscape. SSE hasn't proven the need for this infrastructure, she says. If people in the south want low-carbon energy, Communities B4 Pylon Companies says they should have their own wind turbines and power pylons near their homes, and they can develop nuclear power, or solar, or import solar energy from the Mediterranean.
"We've got enough for Scotland's need. That's when the wind's blowing. When the wind's not blowing, we still need something else."There have been campaigns in the south of Scotland too, and a growing realisation that the extent of offshore wind in the North Sea will require much more cabling to get power from England's east coast, across its fens and flat fields and into the bigger cities.
In the south of Scotland, a division of Scottish Power has a monopoly on the transmission system, inherited from its days as a nationalised company. In England and Wales, that role is played by National Grid. But the lower the cost, the more the scheme relies on pylons, which is antagonising at least some of those who live nearby.SSEN's Rob McDonald says politicians will have to explain to the public why these projects are needed
"This is a portfolio of projects which has been approved by the energy system operator and the energy regulator Ofgem, which is about delivering the UK's energy ambitions."