Community Benefit via a Community Fund, securing a new subsea interconnector for Orkney and delivering a low carbon agenda: these are the main aims of Orkney Islands Council’s revised plans for future wind generation.
Quanterness Wind Farm
The revised plans for Quanterness from OIC went on view to the public on Wednesday (Rendall) and Thursday (Kirkwall) . Staff were on hand to answer questions and there was an opportunity to provide individual feedback.
The proposed six turbine wind farm at Quanterness plans are to be made available on the Council website www.orkney.gov.uk .
The 6 turbines proposed for Quanterness are bigger than any other wind turbines currently on Orkney. A spokesperson for the council explained that this choice was made because subsidies were no longer available and the reality of the market meant that to make money the turbines had to be much bigger.
A Community Fund is to be set up although there are no further details available on this at the time of publication. The Community Fund will allow Orkney to continue to provide a standard of local public services which most local authorities in Scotland would struggle to match. It is also proposed to have some sort of extra recompense for those who live closest to the wind farm.
The Community Fund will also enable Orkney to take measures to deal with the appalling levels of fuel poverty in the islands. The Council awaits clarity from the Scottish Government about how they will be able to manage the fund.
The Quanterness project is one of three under development as part of ‘Orkney’s Community Wind Farm Project’ – alongside Faray and a site to the south of Wee Fea in Hoy.
The proposed Quanterness site has the potential capacity for six turbines, the site on Faray has enough space for up to eight turbines and the current proposal at the third site in Hoy is to erect seven turbines, all at a blade tip height of up to 150m.
Pre-application consultation for the Faray and Hoy sites are likely to take place at later dates in 2020.
Reporter: Fiona Grahame
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all good for Orkney best idea council ever had