Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005. |
Large windfarm recommended for refusal
Credit: Hebrides News | 25/11/13 | www.hebrides-news.com ~~
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Translate: FROM English | TO English
Planning officials are recommending that a proposed £70 million wind farm on Lewis should not go-ahead.
2020 Renewables wants to erect 14 turbines, each of three megawatt capacity, on crofters’ grazings, some ten miles outside Stornoway. Each individual turbine would be 126.5 metres high.
The planned 42 MW windfarm at Druim Leathann would stretch from Loch Diridean down to the forestry plantation at the glen, and include access roads, a sub station and a permanent wind monitoring mast.
Western Isles Council deferred making a decision on the development and councillors attended a site visit last week.
Tomorrow (Tues) afternoon senior planners will tell councillors they the scheme should be refused as it is too close to villages and will have significant adverse impacts on landscape, amenity and homes.
Three quarters of the turbines lie inside a one mile buffer zone around the North Tolsta district which is contrary to council policy for large windfarms.
A planning report states: “Due to the scale of the turbines and the close proximity of the windfarm to the settlement of Tolsta, the proposal will have impacts of major significance on the visual amenity of Tolsta village and on a number of its residences.”
The developer says community benefit payments could be worth £294,000 per year – £7 million over the lifetime of the development.
The wind farm would be expected to involve investment of £63 million in the Lewis economy and 70 jobs during construction as well as a number of full time jobs when operating.
Crucially it would help towards providing the critical mass needed to justify the building of a sub-sea interconnector needed to export energy from all island renewable scheme to southern mainland markets.
Without the cable no sizeable wind farm will ever be constructed in the islands which supporters say jeopardises an economic boom and risks hundreds of jobs.
This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.
The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.
Wind Watch relies entirely on User Contributions |
(via Stripe) |
(via Paypal) |
Share: