Proposed Drummuir Estate Wind Farm
In November 2002 Renewable
Energy Systems Ltd (RES) applied for full planning permission to Moray
Council to construct a wind farm comprising 21 wind turbines on land
at Drummuir Estate in Banffshire approximately 6.5km South West of Keith.
The turbines proposed were three bladed with a 60m high tower and a 80m
rotor diameter with a nominal rated output of 2000kW (2MW) each.
The proposed development would also have associated electricity transformers,
access roads, a control building and substation compound and two wind
monitoring masts.
A separate consenting
mechanism for the grid connection was being pursued. This wind farm application
was submitted with a full Environmental Statement.
As part of the public consultation which took place throughout the development
of the site,
a newsletter was produced at the time of the submission of
the application and distributed to more than 4,000 business and residential
addresses within 7km of the site boundary.
During the planning and consultation process several issues were raised
by consultees.
These included:
| 1. |
Landscape and visual impacts, specifically from two
key viewpoints namely from viewpoint 6
(Drummuir/Newburgh on B9115)
and from viewpoint C1 (Ben Aigan) consultation suggested
reducing
turbine clustering, avoiding turbines being ‘visually isolated’ from
the main wind farm
group and minimising the visual impact of access
tracks, particularly from the latter viewpoint. |
| 2. |
Impacts on peatland RES had not demonstrated that
the layout had specifically addressed avoidance of more sensitive
peatland locations. |
| 3. |
Proximity of a particular turbine to a site previously
used for nesting by an important bird species. |
| 4. |
Lack of assessment of cumulative effects with Glens
of Foudland wind farm in Aberdeenshire. |
These four issues were discussed by RES with Moray Council and SNH so that
the concerns were fully understood and so that appropriate amendments to
the proposal could be made.
The following document provides a Non Technical Summary of the details
and environmental information on the amendments to the planning application.
As part of the public consultation for the amendment to the application
a newsletter was produced at
the time of the submission of the amendment
and was again distributed to more than 4,000 business and residential addresses
within 7km of the site boundary.
Information about the Project
Installed Capacity:
Number of Turbines:
Turbine Rating:
|
42 MW
21
2,000 kW
|
|
|
|
