A joint venture of EDF Renewables and Wood has secured an additional consent from the Scottish government for the Stornoway wind farm in Scotland.
The new consent will give the Lewis Wind Power JV team the option of using the very latest onshore wind turbines on the market, which we believe may be necessary to generate power at the cost required to compete for long-term contracts in the government-backed auction taking place this year, EDF said.
The consented design features up to 24 turbines with a tip height of up to 180 metres and nine turbines with a tip height of up to 156 metres.
This is compared with a maximum of 36 turbines at up to 145 metres in the project’s earlier consent from 2012, which was then amended in 2015.
The latest consent also increases the separation distance between a number of turbines in the eastern part of the site and the town of Stornoway.
EDF said the Environmental Assessment completed to support the application detailed a number of mitigation measures which were embedded in the design of the scheme and controlled through the conditions attached to the consent.
Lewis Wind Power project manager Claire Jones said: “We are pleased Scottish Ministers have approved the additional consent for the Stornoway wind farm under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989.
“I would like to thank the Stornoway Trust for their support in the development of this project over the last twenty years and the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar for their constructive approach to the planning aspects of this development.
“The team at Lewis Wind Power will now focus efforts on supporting SSE to build a new electrical link to the island, obtain the other consents needed and further develop the routes to market.”
The consent comes after two rounds of community consultation on the company’s proposals, with public exhibitions at Stornoway Town Hall in October 2018 and February 2019.