Scotland: Planning approval unanimously given for Crossdykes Wind Farm

At a meeting of the Planning Applications Committee on Tuesday 24th May, Councillors gave their unanimous backing to the 15 turbine wind farm, proposed by Muirhall Energy.

Located between Lockerbie and Langholm, the proposed wind farm comprises 15 turbines, each with a generating capacity of 3.2MW (48MW in total) and a blade tip height of 130m.

In addition to a substantial community benefit package of £240,000 per annum (£5,000 per MW), to be shared by local communities, the developer has offered an up to 10% share in the project which a number of community groups are currently exploring

It is anticipated that approximately £30.2 million will be spent in the region (over the 25 year lifetime of the windfarm), with an estimated value of contracts of £7.6m during the construction period and £6m of community investment.

Once operational the project will produce enough clean sustainable energy equivalent to powering over 28,400 UK average domestic households.

Commenting on the approval, Senior Development Manager Alastair Yule from Muirhall Energy said: “We are clearly delighted that the councillors voted unanimously to approve our planning application for Crossdykes Wind Farm. There was considerable support from a number of community councils for our proposals, as well as from other local groups and organisations, and we would like to thank them for this. Their support was clearly reflected in the decision by councillors. Throughout this whole process we worked constructively with all consultees to deliver a well-designed wind farm, sympathetic to the local landscape and environment and we received no statutory or non-statutory consultee objections. We would like to thank the Councillors for listening to the views of the local communities and supporting our wind farm proposal.”