Scottish Power Renewables has won planning consent for a wind farm in the south-west of Scotland after reducing the number of turbines it wanted to erect.
The Kilgallioch project in Dumfries and Galloway and South Ayrshire, will now have 96 turbines and a generating capacity of up to 288MW. The developer will contribute to a fund to support local environment and energy projects and support the employment of two Countryside Rangers for the promotion and management of the Southern Upland Way over the 25 years the farm is operational.
The developer applied for consent in March 2010 and its original application proposed 132 turbines.
Scotland’s energy minister Fergus Ewing said: “In consenting the application, I have put a number of conditions in place to protect the local wildlife and environment and recognise that measures have been taken to mitigate the impact of the development.”
The Scottish Government has determined 78 energy applications since May 2007, 55 of which have been consents for renewable developments: 31 onshore wind, one offshore wind, 19 hydro, four wave and tidal and 17 non-renewable. It has rejected just six, all of them onshore wind farms.
