The company that owns most of the few remaining Scottish (open cast) coal
mines is planning to build a large-scale new wind farm parc in in Ayrshire.
Brockwell Energy – which is owned by Hargreaves Services plc – the listed
coal mines operator – is currently holding pre-application discussions with
Scot-Govt planning officials in Edinburgh.
The size of the proposed North Kyle wind farm in East Ayrshire would have
an installed of capacity of 290-MW – which means that even if the local
authority rejects the plan at first application, the final decision will be
made on appeal to Scot-Govt ministers.
Durham-based Brockwell Energy and its planning agent Ramboll declined to
provide any further details.
Brockwell also has planning permission to develop a waste-to-energy plant
at the £150 million Earl’s Gate leisure centre and regeneration project in
Grangemouth, which is being financed by the Green Investment Group.
3 Comments
Peter Livingstone · August 31, 2018 at 12:22 pm
The North Kyle Windfarm proposal is completely imcompatible with and presents a massive risk to a number of major initiatives now kicking off in the area including delivery of the Forestry Commission’s North Kyle Forest Masterplan and the Coalfield Communities Landscape Partnership. The FCS masterplan is the result of extensive consultation to come up with a proposal to restructure the conifer plantations to enable forest based tourism and recreation, commuity/economic development and ecological and landscape enhancements. The Landscape Partnership led by East Ayrshire Council has received an initial phase of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to develop projects focusing on improvements and promotion of the areas natural and build heritage. HLF would be justified to withdraw the remaining larger grant worth £millions. These initiatives are also linked with the ongoing restoration of the opencast mine sites with proposals for reforestation, community woodlands and recreation potentially etablishing the area as an examplar of landscape and ecological restoration. The North Kyle windfarm will blow this out of the water. Brockwell argue that their development somehow will enable these initiatives, completely missing the point about what they are about. Given the scale of other windfarm developments in the area, the North Kyle area should be left undeveloped. Hopefully the planners and the Scottish Government will see sense.
William Stevenson · September 28, 2018 at 7:10 pm
I would welcome this as it would bring benefits to the valley
stevie · September 29, 2018 at 8:11 am
It would bring not only a clean source of energy but some VERY much needed jobs into the local area. Windfarms provide a
BIG cash flow into an area during construction and whitell is a popular place with walkers and cyclists now in an area previously largely unused.