Current status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements the national forest estate has in place with private sector providers for wind, hydro and solar electricity generation on land in its ownership or management; what the current capacity in megawatts is of any generation installed; what the most recently recorded annual income was for the national forest estate from any such arrangements, and when each of the arrangements will come to an end.
Scotland's national forests and land, managed by Forestry and Land Scotland has 76 land agreements in place with private companies covering renewable energy schemes which are currently operational. There are 25 windfarms and 51 hydro schemes. There are no solar schemes. The assets comprising the FLS renewable energy portfolio are managed under operational leases.
The current operational capacity of this portfolio is 1257.95 MW, this comprises 1213.7 MW wind and 44.245 MW hydro.
The most recently recorded annual income for this portfolio is £21,800,000 wind and £2,049,842 hydro.
The lease end dates vary depending on lease length and whether any variations are applied during the lease period.