Renewable energy applications data: EIR release

Information requested

1. Number of Renewable Energy Applications (Including BESS) – January 2020 to February 2025

The total number of renewable energy applications (including wind, solar, hydro, and BESS) received by the ECU for:

• a) The Scottish Borders local authority area
• b) The constituency of Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire
• A yearly breakdown of these applications from January 2020 to February 2025.
• A breakdown by type of project (e.g. wind, solar, hydro, BESS).

2. Number of Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) Applications

The total number of BESS applications received in:

• a) The Scottish Borders local authority area
• b) The constituency of Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire
• A yearly breakdown of these applications from January 2020 to February 2025.
• The capacity (MW) of BESS projects proposed and approved.

3. Approval and Rejection Rates

The total number of renewable energy applications (including BESS) that were:

• a) Approved
• b) Rejected
• A yearly breakdown from January 2020 to February 2025.

The approval success rate (%) of applications made in:

• a) The Scottish Borders
• b) The Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire constituency

Any common reasons cited for rejecting applications.

4. Current Status of Pending Applications

• The number of renewable energy applications (including BESS) currently awaiting a decision.
• The oldest application still under review.

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

I enclose a copy of some of the information you requested in spreadsheet format, titled ANNEX A and will address each point in turn:

1.

a) The total number of renewable energy applications (including wind, solar, hydro, and BESS) received by the ECU for the Scottish Borders local authority area is 46 (details provided in Annex A)

b) The terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because we do not hold this information based on the reports which we maintain.

This exception is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in this information, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

A yearly breakdown of these applications from January 2020 to February 2025 (filter column F within Annex A):

2020 - 5
2021 - 4
2022 - 8
2023 - 11
2024 - 15
2025 - 3

A breakdown by type of project (e.g. wind, solar, hydro, BESS) (filter column D within Annex A):

Wind farm - 18
Battery Energy Storage System - 8
Hybrid/Solar - 8
Overhead Powerline – 12

2.

a) The total number of BESS applications received by the ECU in the Scottish Borders local authority area is 8 (filter column D in Annex A).Please note we don’t have records of BESS applications considered at Local Authority level by the Scottish Borders Council You may wish to contact the Scottish Borders local authority to request this information.

b) The terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because we do not hold this information based on the reports which we maintain.

This exception is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in this information, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

A yearly breakdown of these applications from January 2020 to February 2025 (filter columns D and F within Annex A):

2020 - 0
2021 - 0
2022 - 2
2023 - 3
2024 - 3
2025 - 0

The capacity (MW) of BESS projects proposed and approved:

The MW capacity of each installation considered by the Energy Consents Unit is not finalised during the consenting process. This is established during construction and then connection of the development to the grid network.

This information is however available from https://data.barbour-abi.com/smart-map/repd/desnz/?type=repd

This interactive map provided by the UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, shows the geographical spread of renewable energy projects, their associated status and if connected, their capacity.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception, as the information is already publicly available.

3.

The total number of renewable energy applications received by the ECU in the Scottish Borders local authority area (including BESS) that were:

a) approved was 7 (filter column G within Annex A);

b) rejected was 0.

A yearly breakdown of these applications from January 2020 to February 2025:

a) 100% as no applications were rejected.

b) The terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because we do not hold this information based on the reports which we maintain.

This exception is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in this information, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Any common reasons cited for rejecting applications:

No applications have been rejected within the time period and location requested.

4.

Current Status of Pending Applications

• The number of renewable energy applications (including BESS) currently awaiting a decision.
• The oldest application still under review.

Under regulation 6(1)(b) of the EIRs, we do not have to give you information which is already publicly available and easily accessible to you in another form or format.

The information you have requested is available from https://www.energyconsents.scot/Default.aspx

The Energy Consents Portal allows for full transparency of each application made by publishing all documents relating to an application, including the decision.

From the main page of the website, click on the search tab, followed by 'Advanced Search.' There is then the option to search by case type and status, before selecting the 'go' button which returns the search results. These can then be exported to various file formats to allow for additional analysis.

This exception is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception, as the information is already publicly available.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

EIR 202500451517 - Information released - ANNEX A

File type

Excel document

File size

16.9 kB