Scottish Highlands Windfarm Green Lit

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - A 108-megawatt (MW) onshore windfarm in the Scottish Highlands has been granted permission by the government.

The €201 million ($273 million) Bhlaraidh project is owned by SSE (Perth, Scotland) and will boast 32 turbines. Located 4-kilometres (km) north-west of Invermoriston, it will be capable of powering over 50,000 homes in the area. The windfarm is the latest in Scotland's ambitious drive to become completely dependent on renewable energy by the end of the decade. In 2012, renewable energy supplied just over 40% of Scotland's total energy needs.

"The Bhlaraidh windfarm will create jobs both in its construction and during its lifetime, and once up and running will save thousands of tons of carbon dioxide each year," commented Scottish Energy Minister, Fergus Ewing. "With this windfarm we will now be able to produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of approximately 50,900 homes. Wind farms like this provide considerable benefits to their local community, and play an important part in helping Scotland reach its target of the equivalent of 100% of electricity demand generated from renewables. The Scottish Government wants to see the right developments in the right places, and Scottish planning policy is clear that the design and location of any wind farm should reflect the scale and character of the landscape, as well as being considered environmentally acceptable."

Since 2007, the government has determined 89 energy applications, including consent for 60 renewable applications: 34 onshore wind, one offshore wind, 19 hydro, four wave and tidal and two renewable thermal plant. A further 19 conventional power projects have also been consented. Today, the government's Energy Consents and Deployment Unit is considering a further 56 applications of >50MW capacity generating stations, including 52 onshore wind applications, one renewable hydro application, one non-renewable hydro applications and two renewable thermal applications.

Colin Nicol, Director of Onshore Renewables at SSE said: "Work to address the conditions associated with the consent will now commence ahead of the construction phase. During this period, SSE will be engaging with local people. We hope to continue the strong community relationships formed historically in Glenmoriston as a result of our hydro power generation, and through the windfarm proposal in more recent years. SSE will be providing up to £13 million ($21 million) of community investment funds over the next 25 years."

SSE currently has over 2,500 MW of commissioned renewable energy capacity in the U.K. and Ireland including hydro, onshore wind, offshore wind and biomass.

Last November SSE and partner RWE Innogy, the U.K. arm of German energy major RWE AG (OTC:RWEOY) (Essen, Germany), decided to cut the size of the Galloper offshore windfarm by almost a third, from 504 MW to 340 MW. For additional information, see November 26, 2013, article - SSE Cuts Size of Galloper Offshore Windfarm.

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