October 26, 2011
Scotland

SSE withdraws plans for Waterhead Moor wind farm

Reuters, uk.reuters.com 26 October 2011

SSE, one of Britain’s six big energy suppliers, said it has decided to withdraw plans to build a 72.5 megawatt (MW) wind farm in North Ayrshire, citing construction and planning challenges.

SSE Renewables has requested that the Scottish Government withdraw the application for the proposed wind farm at Waterhead Moor, the company said on Wednesday.

SSE added the proposal was initiated before the site was designated as a European Special Protection Area, which added complexity.

“This site had the wind resource and the site dynamics to be a very good project, but having listened to the concerns of the key consultees we have concluded that the reasonable action to take is to focus our resources on onshore wind farms elsewhere,” SSE’s Director of Onshore Renewables David Gardner said.

The news comes barely a week after Britain proposed to cut support for more mature technologies such as wind and hydro power prompting utility Centrica to say it would put two offshore wind projects under review.

Shares in SSE were down about 0.30 percent at 1341.12 pence at 11:10 a.m. BST.

(Reporting by Adveith Nair; Editing by Matt Scuffham)

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2011/10/26/sse-withdraws-plans-for-waterhead-moor-wind-farm/