Diesel generators did not power wind farms in Scotland, nor anywhere else

A wind turbine’s blades rotate because they’re blown in the wind, as the name suggests. When wind spins the blades, they spin a generator inside the turbine’s nacelle, which produces electricity. A wind turbine’s blades do not spin because ‘diesel generators’ power them.

Yet this is the claim of an X/Twitter post decrying “diesel generators powering wind turbine farms”, which has garnered more than 240,000 views since it was posted on 14 May 2025. 

The post includes a clip of a video originating from online outlet Straight Arrow News stating that officials in Scotland “used massive diesel generators to ensure dozens of giant turbines on wind farms could function”. Reposts of the video have spread in the past month across X, Facebook, and TikTok. Other versions of this claim have circulated for several years prior.

There’s no evidence that diesel is used to ‘power’ wind turbines, either in Scotland or anywhere else. And, as we’ll explain, trying to discredit new technology by claiming that it’s dirty or that it’s unreliable is a common pattern of misinformation by those who oppose renewable energy.

Diesel generators did not power wind turbines in Scotland

The story behind the aforementioned post first broke in February 2023, when the Sunday Mail – a Scottish newspaper – reported that the Arceloch and Glen App wind farms in southwestern Scotland had used diesel generators. (Straight Arrow News and numerous other outlets rewrote this story.) 

The Sunday Mail said that these two wind farms’ “windmills were hooked up to the fossil fuel supply”, potentially leaving readers with the impression that fossil fuels were powering the turbines or generating the wind farms’ electricity. 

However, this wasn’t what happened – the diesel generators were used for emergency maintenance. A spokesperson for Scottish Power, which operates the two wind farms, told Science Feedback:

“The turbines were offline due to a fault on the electricity grid network, so were out of operation and not generating electricity. Due to their location in rural Scotland – and owing to the severe winter weather at the time – a small number of small generators were used to assist the turbine’s heating system whilst they were offline, not to generate electricity.”

Due to the grid fault, the wind turbines were out of operation; thus, the diesel generators couldn’t have been ‘powering’ them.

Scottish Power also confirmed to Science Feedback that the diesel generators were used to prevent the turbine blades from icing. Ice buildup is a common problem that wind turbines face in freezing weather (Figure 1), but turbine operators are well-prepared for it. 

Icing can be fought with ‘passive’ methods (such as special blade materials that are cold-resistant) or ‘active’ methods, which rely on external energy to keep the blade warm^[1,2].  That energy can come from the electric grid, but that wasn’t possible in this Scottish case, as a separate issue had cut off the wind turbines from the grid – hence, operators used diesel generators as a backup.

(The original version of the Straight Arrow News video does report that generators were used for deicing, but the explanation is cut from the clipped version found on social media.)

While these circumstances are unfortunate, they shouldn’t be confused for an everyday occurrence. Imagine deciding to not use a mobile phone because there is a small chance it will suffer water damage in the rain.

No examples of diesel generators powering wind turbines

Indeed, Science Feedback found no reported examples of diesel generators powering wind turbine blades. Regardless, there would be little point in doing so; it would be far more efficient to plug a diesel generator into the grid directly and skip the wind turbine entirely.

Diesel generators are sometimes found on wind turbine construction sites, but these are typically temporary – used until a site is connected to the grid.

There are cases where diesel generators and wind turbines operate in tandem – “wind-diesel hybrid systems” where a diesel generator creates electricity when there isn’t wind to spin a turbine. However, these generators don’t ‘power’ the wind turbine – they only provide backup power.

Moreover, you probably won’t find these hybrid systems on the main grid. They’re mainly intended for places that are disconnected from the main grid (remote settlements, for example) or for places that rely on their own generation because the main grid isn’t reliable (often in developing countries). These are places where you might use a diesel generator anyway^[4,5].

In fact, some researchers now suggest that renewables can completely phase out diesel generators in these sorts of locations – including in places as remote as Antarctic research stations^[5,6].

The claim of fossil-fuel-powered wind turbines fits a common misinformation pattern

Renewable energy opponents (or fossil fuel proponents) often use claims like this – framing renewable energy as ‘unreliable’, or stating that low-carbon energy ultimately still has fossil fuels or pollutants behind it – as reason to claim that wind turbines or solar cells are flawed. 

But these claims are often cherry-picking unusual cases. For example, we’ve seen claims that ‘diesel generators power electric vehicle charging stations’. Those claims reference one instance when diesel generators were used to provide additional electricity to a single charging station then under construction. There’s no evidence that diesel generators regularly power electric charging stations.

Indeed, other such claims aren’t backed up by evidence. Take the claim that ‘electric vehicles aren’t climate-friendly because they rely on electricity from fossil fuels’. In reality, as we’ve shown in the past, electric vehicles emit less greenhouse gas than their petrol-powered counterparts almost everywhere.

These sorts of claims usually don’t provide any scientific evidence. So if you see a claim that doesn’t seem to support itself with reliable evidence or proof, it’s good to be skeptical.

References:

• 1 – Zhang et al. (2024) A Review of Wind Turbine Icing and Anti/De-Icing Technologies. Energies.
• 2 – Parent and Ilinca (2011) Anti-icing and de-icing techniques for wind turbines: Critical review. Cold Regions Science and Technology.
• 3 – Wang et al. (2022) Review of the Typical Damage and Damage-Detection Methods of Large Wind Turbine Blades. Energies.
• 4 – VanderMeer et al. (2023) MicroGrid Renewable Integration Dispatch and Sizing (MiGRIDS) Analysis of Spinning and Regulating Reserve Options for Wind in an Alaskan Diesel Microgrid. IEEE Access.
• 5 – Fadlallah et al. (2021) Is this the right time for Sudan to replace diesel-powered generator systems with wind turbines? Renewable Energy.
• 6 – Babinec et al. (2024) Techno-economic analysis of renewable energy generation at the South Pole. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.