ScottishPower Renewables has received consent from The Scottish Government for 23 wind turbines at Dersalloch Hill in South Ayrshire.
Construction of the windfarm will commence later on this year, and the full 23 turbine project will have a nominal capacity of up to 69 megawatts (MW).
The main windfarm site is located in South Ayrshire, 4km east of Straiton and was one of the earliest projects that ScottishPower Renewables considered for a windfarm development. Initial studies commenced in 2003, and the planning application was submitted in April 2005.
Early plans were scaled back due to landscape and visual concerns by Scottish Natural Heritage, and subsequently the company has been working closely with Glasgow Prestwick Airport to agree a mitigation solution to ensure the integrity of its air traffic control systems are not compromised. Beyond this, the project team has worked closely with Historic Scotland, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, The University of Leeds, The Scottish Government and the people of South Ayrshire over a number of years.
Simon Christian, UK Managing Director, ScottishPower Renewables said: “After a lot of hard work and significant effort right across our company for many years, we are delighted to see this consent issued by The Scottish Government. Dersalloch has always had the potential to be a significant renewable energy project.
“We have overcome a number of obstacles, negotiating on a wide range of technical and environmental issues, and we look forward now to starting construction at Dersalloch later this year. This will create opportunities for local business to become involved, with associated positive economic benefit within the local area, as well as seeing the project make an important contribution to Scotland’s green energy targets.”
As part of ScottishPower Renewables’ commitment to the community around Dersalloch, a fund will be set up to support local projects. An overall community benefit of the equivalent of £5,000/MW of installed capacity will be provided, generating up to £8.6m over the project lifetime.
ScottishPower Renewables currently has approximately 1,440MW of onshore wind generation capacity in the UK, including the most recently completed projects, the 136MW Harestanes windfarm in Dumfries and Galloway and the 44MW Beinn an Tuirc Extension windfarm in Argyll & Bute.
This year is also expected to see the completion of the 389MW, £1.6 billion, West of Duddon Sands offshore windfarm. This project is being developed jointly with DONG Energy, and is located in the East Irish Sea, south west of Barrow-in-Furness.
ScottishPower Press Office – 0141 614 4660