Old Man of Hoy silhouette Martin Laird

The Council will provide residents of Hoy and Walls with information on how their communities could benefit from a Wind Farm.

The meeting will be on Monday 30th April at 7pm in North Walls School.

OIC Leader and local councillor James Stockan said:

“We have a significant announcement to make about the next phase of the project.

“I look forward to providing further details on the night and hope that as many people as possible from the local community come along to talk with us about this.

“Although this is an important milestone for the project, I would like to stress that a final decision has not been taken about whether to go ahead with a wind farm development – a lot more work needs to be undertaken before we reach that stage.”

The Community Wind Turbine on Hoy which was installed in 2011 has so far achieved 110% of its performance.

A Report for the Council about wind turbine developments, Landscape Assessment stated:

“Developments on the Moorland Hills of Hoy are constrained by the sensitivities of the Wild Land Area, the boundaries of which are approximately 2km from the east coast of Hoy, and therefore capacity for wind energy exists only on the eastern fringes of the Moorland Hills and in relatively close proximity to the settled Inclined Coastal Pastures around Lyness. Within this transitional landscape it is not considered that developments in excess of those proposed in the 2014 Capacity Study are likely to be acceptable.Wind energy developments in excess of the limits proposed in the 2014 Capacity Study should
not be considered for the Inclined Coastal Pastures around Lyness”