This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Crystal Rig wind farm to be extended
25/05/2004
The Borders windfarm Crystal Rig is to be extended by
five wind turbines to a total of 25 turbines, increasing
its power generation capacity to 62.5 MegaWatts - enough to
power 37,250 homes.
Announcing the consent at the All Energy Opportunities
Conference in Aberdeen, Deputy Enterprise Minister Lewis
Macdonald said:
"This approval follows a wide ranging consultation to
ensure this development does not come at an unacceptable
cost to the surrounding environment.
"We are seeing more and more renewable developments
coming forward and that is why I remain confident that we
will meet our ambitious targets for green energy.
"The Renewables Supply Chain Gap analysis published
earlier this year found that Scotland could sustain 7,000
jobs in renewables by 2020 - I believe we can do even
better than that as we continue working with the sector to
ensure Scotland takes advantage of its natural resources
and expertise in energy.
"It is important that our planning system supports this
rapidly developing industry. While Scotland's planning
process is largely successful in supporting our policy
objectives of generating more renewable energy, there is
some scope for improvement.
"I'm pleased therefore that I can announce today that we
are considering improvements to the planning system for
renewable development consents to make the system more
efficient and transparent.
"As part of this we are reviewing the fee system for
renewable development applications to allow planning
authorities fee income for each section 36 application with
which they are required to deal.
"We are aiming to ensure these fees reflect the work
involved - any increases will be reinvested into the
planning systems of local authorities and the Executive.
This might allow, for example, increased numbers of staff
to speed up the applications process.
"I expect to be able to publish the details of the
proposed changes in a consultation paper within the next
few weeks," he said.
The Scottish Executive has set targets for generating 18
per cent of Scotland's energy needs from renewable sources
by 2010 and 40 per cent by 2020. Further details can be
found at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/enterprise/energy
The Crystal Rig wind farm is in the Scottish Borders
local authority area, about 16 kilometres north east of
Duns and near the Borders boundary with East Lothian.
An application by 'The Natural Power Consultants' on
behalf of Crystal Rig Windfarm Limited to develop Crystal
Rig was originally submitted to Scottish Borders Council
and received planning permission in September 2001.
Proposals for the number of turbines were subsequently
amended, and in June 2002, Scottish Borders Council gave
planning permission for a windfarm comprising 25 turbines,
and not exceeding 49 MegaWatts of installed capacity.
The company commenced development of the project
within the terms of this permission but sourced turbines of
the same physical dimensions, as specified in the
permission, but with greater generation capacity.
Consequently to comply with the planning permission, they
were only able to build 20 of the 25 cited in the
application. Ther resultant additional capacity resulting
from the decision to use the upgraded model being used
brought the total generation over the threshold for Section
36 applications (13.5 MegaWatts more than the June 2002
application at 49 MW.) Consequently, consent was required
from Scottish Ministers under the Section 36 rule in order
to allow the construction of the remaining 5 turbines to
proceed.