SCOTTISH electricity company SSE is investing £200 million in the acquisition and development of a wind-farm project at Dunmaglass near Loch Mhor, about 15 miles south of Inverness.
Perth-based SSE announced yesterday it was buying the Dunmaglass wind-farm project from Hertfordshire-based Renewable Energy Systems (RES).
SSE declined to reveal the purchase price for the project, which has attracted opposition from environmental campaigners but received planning consent in December 2010.
It said its total investment in the project, including acquisition, development and capital costs, was expected to be around £200m.
Dunmaglass will be a 33-turbine wind farm.
SSE said pre-construction works had already begun off-site. It expects to begin full construction of the wind farm in late 2013 and to complete the project in early 2016.
It added that, once built, the wind farm would have an installed capacity of 99 megawatts.
SSE noted that meteorological mast data obtained from the site, over several years, had demonstrated that Dunmaglass would benefit from "exceptional wind resource", with potential load factors of more than 40%. The load factor is the ratio of the average load to the peak load over a period of time.
A spokesman for SSE noted this 40%-plus load factor for Dunmaglass was significantly greater than the average figure of about 28% quoted by industry body Scottish Renewables for onshore wind.
SSE said that projected annual output from the Dunmaglass wind farm was more than 350 gigawatt-hours (GWh).
Colin Nicol, director of onshore renewables at SSE, said the company recognised, and intended to honour, commitments made to the local community in connection with the Dunmaglass project.
He added that SSE would in coming weeks work alongside RES, which employs about 70 people in Glasgow, to keep local stakeholders fully informed of plans.
Jim Smith, managing director of renewables at SSE, declared the company intended to ensure that "real economic and social benefits" flowed into the area.
He said: "We have said that we will pursue both acquisitions and disposals in order to optimise our wind-farm portfolio in the UK, and this acquisition of Dunmaglass wind farm is completely in line with that objective. Dunmaglass is a well-designed project, which benefits from an excellent wind resource compared to typical onshore sites."
Mr Nicol said: "The project fits well alongside the other renewable developments we have in the area, enabling us to further develop a local supply chain that draws upon local contractors, increase the co-ordination of transport activities, maximise the effectiveness of habitat management plans, and optimise many other aspects of project delivery."
SSE told the stock market that its expenditure on the Dunmaglass project was consistent with the scale and composition of its planned investment programme to 2015.
It said the planned completion date would ensure Dunmaglass qualified for support through the existing Renewables Obligation Certificate regime, which is aimed at providing incentives for the deployment of large-scale renewable electricity generation in the UK. SSE shares rose 9p to 1602p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article