Project updates

Public exhibitions will take place in Garve, Contin and Strathpeffer across the 15 and 16 of May. An online version of the exhibition will run from 7 May.

Local residents are invited to give feedback on the updated proposals for the wind farm, which has seen a further reduction in the number of turbines and reduction in height of four further turbines.

The public exhibition will be held at: 

• Contin Community Hall: 10:30AM - 2PM, 15 May
• Garve Public Hall: 3:30PM-8:30PM, 15 May
• Strapeffer Community Centre: 3PM-6:30PM, 16 May

Following the first round of public engagement in late 2023 and on-going engagement with statutory consultees, an amended layout has been put forward. This sees a 9 turbine scheme proposed, a further reduction from the 14 turbine scoping layout and the 11 turbine lasyout presented at the previous round of public exhibitions.

The new layout also sees four turbines have their height reduced to a maximum of 180 meters to tip, down from 200 meters to tip. Together, the reduction in height and the reduction in numbers are intended to significantly reduce the visual impact of the scheme.

The Sponsorship which includes support of a series of business and community roadshows, with Kate Forbes MSP (Highland Tourism Ambassador and former Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy) as a key speaker, will help to grow the already expanding Highland Renewables activity which is part of the Highland Tourism CIC group. 

Business leaders from the renewable energy and tourism sectors, as well as whisky, heritage and other sectors important to the Highland economy, will be invited to attend the roadshows along with community leaders to discuss actions to benefit the growth and future of the Highlands. The roadshows are planned for early 2024.

Iain Robertson, Head of Statkraft Scotland, said: “Bringing together the renewable energy and tourism sectors is a world-first and will surely be good for the Highland economy. Statkraft has a good neighbour ethos, whereby we try to bring extra value to the communities where we have developments and operations. The work being delivered by Highland Tourism CIC is ground-breaking and we’re pleased to be playing our part in making it all happen.”  

Read the full announcement here.

We are considering the potential of up to 14 turbines, with a maximum blade tip height of up to 200m for the proposed Carn Fearna Wind Farm. This would have a maximum installed capacity of 92MW based on our current candidate turbines.

 
Engaging early with communities is important to us. The Scoping Request is when the project is first introduced to the public and to help keep local communities informed we have published the project website and written to the host and surrounding community councils within local area. 

The Scoping period provides the opportunity to formally gather the views of key stakeholders such as NatureScot and local Community Councils about the proposal and the key topics to be assessed as our proposals develop. The findings of these assessments and feedback will help shape our proposals. 

There will be further opportunities to view plans and provide your comments during the development stage of the proposal. We will be hosting two rounds of public exhibitions to present our proposals and gather local feedback. We will write to households and businesses around the site ahead of the exhibitions to ensure as many people know about it As well as in-person exhibitions with our project team, there will also be an online exhibition and opportunities to engage in other ways.

You can find the full scoping documents including a location plan for the proposal under project documents or on the Energy Consents Unit website (ref  ECU00004851).