Wind Power News: Scotland
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted.
Wind farm exhibition didn’t tell full story
I attended one of the exhibitions with regards to the new Auchencairn windfarm and found the information misleading.
The photographic images did not portray the true images of turbines as we view them on a daily basis.
Nor did the futuristic views include the soon-to-be-built 71 turbine wind farm which will commence shortly in Ae forest.
Information sheets state that the electricity produced will “supply consumption of between 11,500-15,500 homes, equating to 17-23 per cent of the households in Dumfries and Galloway.”
Will Dumfries . . .
Wind farm group to go public
Opponents of a Speyside wind farm plan will crank up the pressure at a public meeting in Dufftown.
All 26 Moray Council members have been invited to the meeting on Monday, July 13 (7.30pm) at Glenifiddich Distillery.
The meeting has been organised by Save Our Scenic Moray (SOS Moray), which is opposed to plans by the Infinergy energy company to create a 59-turbine development at Dorenell on the Glenfiddich Estate.
Moray Council is a statutory consultee for the development, which will ultimately be . . .
Wind farm plans are gust not on
Plans for a four-turbine wind farm on land next to the A75 at Glenluce have been thrown out by councillors.
Wigtown Area Committee this week refused permission for Barlockhart Moor Wind Energy Ltd to construct their planned 152-metre high windmills after it was agreed the development would have a detrimental impact on the landscape.
The plans would have been the seventh wind farm in the south-west of Scotland to be built or to go through planning stages.
Robert Rankin, of Whitecairn Caravan Park, . . .
Safety fears over HGV access to windfarm site
Roads too narrow for construction traffic, claims Ross-shire resident
Highland Council is endangering the safety of road-users by allegedly failing to enforce planning conditions regarding HGV access for the construction of a 20-turbine windfarm in Ross-shire, according to an objector.
Retired haulier Roy Baker, who lives near the Fairburn scheme at Strathconnon, argues that a narrow and twisty three-mile stretch of C11 road between Marybank and the Scatwell site used by construction traffic is inadequate and that promised laybys have not materialised.
Mr . . .
Impact on turbine plan unknown
The impact on a Leven wind turbine project is unknown after drinks giant Diageo announced that it plans to expand its site in the town.
On Wednesday, in what came as a massive surprise boost for the local economy, the firm announced plans to create a packaging hall at the site in a move which will create 400 jobs.
The announcement has been met with delight by politicians and community figureheads but the effect on a project by Ore Valley Housing Association . . .
Thousands sign petition to stop £800m Shetland wind farm
The scale of public opposition to Europe’s largest onshore wind farm proposed for the Shetland mainland has been underlined after about 70 campaigners handed in a petition of more than 3600 signatures demanding the plans be scrapped.
A vociferous campaign against the 150-turbine, £800m development, led by the Sustainable Shetland Group, which has more than 600 members, culminated in the petition being handed into Lerwick Town Hall yesterday.
The signatures, representing almost 20% of Shetland’s population over the age of 12, were . . .
3,600-name petition says no to wind farm
Protesters campaigning against proposals to site Europe’s biggest community wind farm in the heart of the Shetland mainland presented councillors with a petition bearing more than 3,600 signatures yesterday.
Viking Energy, a consortium formed by Shetland Islands Council and Scottish and Southern Energy to build the 150-turbine wind farm, formally lodged an application in May to develop the scheme, which, it is said, will produce enough power to supply 20 per cent of Scotland’s domestic energy needs.
The turbines will be spread . . .
SSE scales down Clyde wind farm in Scotland
Scottish & Southern Energy PLC (SSE.L) said on Wednesday it was scaling down capacity by around 100 megawatts at its Clyde wind farm in southern Scotland, one of Europe’s largest onshore wind farms.
SSE said the wind farm will have a total capacity of 350 MW, instead of 456 MW initially planned.
“Nevertheless, the design of the turbines, and their on-site configuration, mean the annual output of the wind farm, expected to be over 1,000 GWh, will be unaffected,” it said.
“The construction . . .
3,600 say ‘No’ to windfarm plans
Around seventy anti windfarm campaigners turned out at Lerwick Town Hall this morning (Wednesday) to hand in a petition with more than 3,600 signatures, opposing plans to build a 540MW windfarm in Shetland.
The signatures, collected by campaigners from Sustainable Shetland, were presented by 13 year old Rachel Smith, a second year pupil of Brae High School.
Viking Energy, a partnership between the utility company Scottish and Southern Energy and the Shetland Charitable Trust, lodged a planning application for Europe’s largest onshore . . .
Anti-windfarm group presents petition with 3,600 signatures to council
Anti-windfarm group Sustainable Shetland has presented a petition to the council with more than 3,600 signatures condemning the Viking Energy plan to build 150 turbines in the central Mainland.
Rachel Smith, 13, from Hillswick, handed over the document to SIC convener Sandy Cluness before Wednesday’s Full Council meeting.
Rachel, a keen walker and naturalist, said she opposed the windfarm because it would “devastate the landscape, and ruin the areas where I love to go walking and bird watching”, adding that it was . . .
