The UK and Scottish governments are consulting on an updated approach to managing onshore wind turbine interference on the Eskdalemuir Seismic Array in southern Scotland.
Industry is being asked for feedback on draft technical guidance that would update the methodology used to calculate the headroom available for new onshore wind projects around the monitoring station, which detects seismic signals from nuclear explosions as part of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
The Ministry of Defence, which safeguards the array, has since 2018 objected to wind farm proposals within a 50km consultation zone around the facility after a cumulative seismic impact threshold was reached.
The eight-week consultation launched today (20 March) aims to “implement an enduring solution to onshore wind interference with the Eskdalemuir Seismic Array” that can “unlock onshore wind capacity in the pipeline, while preserving the array’s crucial detection capabilities”.
“Without a change in approach, no new projects are likely to be consented within 50km of the array. The proposed new framework aims to open this area to new onshore wind development, and maximise the potential generation capacity,” documents state.
Among the proposals is to expand an existing 10km exclusion zone for development to 15km, which would block an estimated 800MW in the pipeline but optimise the potential for new projects beyond 15km.
“We acknowledge that some potential projects would be negatively impacted by this policy, but the proposed changes aim to better balance array safeguarding with the potential for increased onshore wind deployment within the broader 50km zone,” officials stated.
The consultation also proposes introducing a Seismic Impact Limit that would provide a new measurement tool for calculating the effect of specific turbine models on the array that is hoped will increase the headroom available for new projects within the existing threshold.
Interested parties have until 15 May to submit responses.