A planning application has gone in for the installation of 14 wind turbines at Leadhills in South Lanarkshire.
The application was submitted by Atmos Consulting on behalf of Falck Renewables Wind and RDC Partners LLP. The site is around 5km from the villages of Crawfordjohn, Leadhills and Wanlockhead and sits within South Lanarkshire Council’s designated zone for wind farms of more than 20MW. It is, however, within the 50km buffer zone of the Eskdalemuir seismic monitoring station run by the MoD.
The local authority will now consult statutory agencies and the public on their opinions of the proposal before a decision is reached towards the end of the year.
The joint venture of RDC and Falck has developed seven wind farm projects in the UK, including sites in Skye, Aberdeenshire, Inverness-shire, and Stirlingshire. Atmos Consulting has worked with the joint venture to help secure the planning permissions required for all of those developments.
Simon Green, project manager at RDC, said: “We in the RDC/Falck team have been working for the last five years to secure the necessary land agreements, undertake grid studies and planning work to arrive at this important milestone in this project.”
The Atmos-led environmental impact assessment team has worked to refine the proposed layout through a mix of baseline work and detailed consultations.
Roger McMichael, principal consultant with Atmos in Inverness, added: “Our comprehensive skill set and EIA processes have ensured risks have been catalogued and considered, with professional judgement informing of the key decisions we have taken.”
