East Ayrshire Council has approved ScottishPower Renewables’ plans to develop Hare Hill Windfarm Extension, located to the south east of New Cumnock. The project will see 39 turbines installed, with a generating capacity of around 33 megawatts (MW).
The project has been in development for over 9 years, and will be built adjacent to the existing 20 wind turbines of Hare Hill Windfarm, which have been operational since 2000 with a capacity of 13MW.
ScottishPower Renewables has worked closely with a range of planning, community and environmental stakeholders over several years to develop the project in a collaborative and sensitive manner. Managing the interests of aviation stakeholders has been key to the project’s success, and the company worked closely with NATS En Route, the Ministry of Defence, and Glasgow Prestwick Airport to ensure their concerns were addressed.
Simon Christian, UK Managing Director, ScottishPower Renewables said:
“Our business has spent a number of years developing Hare Hill Windfarm Extension, and we are delighted that East Ayrshire Council has today approved our plans.
“The original Hare Hill Windfarm project was one of the first windfarms that we constructed in Scotland, and we have grown from these early projects to become one of the largest developers of wind power in the UK. Importantly, we have achieved this growth in a responsible manner, by carefully selecting suitable sites, and working closely with communities and local stakeholders. We have secured consent for over 90% of the wind capacity that we have put into the planning system, which is an industry leading position and testament to the efforts that we put in to every project.
“ScottishPower Renewables has also been leading the renewables industry in working closely with aviation authorities, airports and the military to agree solutions to overcome any potential impacts on their operations. This ongoing work has resulted in solutions being found for many proposed developments, which now includes Hare Hill Extension.”
The company aims to start construction work at Hare Hill Extension in late 2015, with the project due to be fully completed by 2016.
As part of ScottishPower Renewables’ commitment to the community around Hare Hill Extension, community benefit of the equivalent of £5,000/MW of installed capacity will be provided, delivering up to £4.1m over the project lifetime. The company also supports the use of local contractors where possible as the project goes into the construction and operational phases.
ScottishPower Renewables currently has approximately 1,500MW of onshore wind generation capacity in the UK. Recently completed projects include the 136MW Harestanes windfarm in Dumfries and Galloway and the 44MW Beinn an Tuirc Extension windfarm in Argyll & Bute.
In October it was announced that the 389MW, £1.6 billion, West of Duddon Sands offshore windfarm was completed ahead of schedule. This project was developed jointly by ScottishPower Renewables and DONG Energy, and is located in the East Irish Sea, south west of Barrow-in-Furness.
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