Iberdrola gets green light for Scottish wind farm

Iberdrola, through its UK subsidiary ScottishPower Renewables, has received consent from the Scottish Government for 23 wind turbines at Dersalloch Hill in the South Ayrshire, with a nominal capacity of up to 69 MW.

The wind farm site is located to the east of Staiton, in Scotland. Since the planning application was submitted in April 2005, the company has overcome stringent technical and environmental requirements before being granted planning consent.

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.

This new project reaffirms Iberdrola’s commitment to developing renewable energies in the UK, where it operates nearly 1,600 MW, including onshore and offshore wind and wave and tidal energy projects.

The company has recently completed installation of the 136 MW Harestanes wind farm in Dumfries and Galloway and the 44 MW Beinn an Tuirc Extension wind farm in Argyll & Bute.

This year is also expected to see the commissioning of the 389 MW, £1.6 billion, West of Duddon Sands offshore wind farm. This project is being developed jointly with DONG Energy, and is located in the East Irish Sea, south west of Barrow-in-Furness.

Also, progress is being made in Scottish waters on two experimental technologies with bright future prospects: tidal energy, with the Hammerfest prototype and wave energy, with the Pelamis device.