Statkraft is at the heart of the UK’s energy transition. Since 2006, Statkraft has gone from strength to strength in the UK, building experience across wind, solar, hydro, storage, grid stability, EV charging, green hydrogen and a thriving markets business.

We’ve invested over £1.3 billion in the UK's renewable energy infrastructure and facilitated over 4 GW of new-build renewable energy generation through Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). 

Across our UK businesses we employ over 300 staff in England, Scotland and Wales and play a key role in helping the global business reach its goal of 9 GW of developed wind and solar power by 2025. 

Find out more about Statkraft here. 

Did you know that less than 10% of the land area in Scotland is suitable for wind farm development? We need to maximise those sites to boost renewable energy generation and contribute to Scotland’s net-zero commitments. Onshore wind contributed to the UK’s 2020 electricity generation as energy produced by renewables made up 42% of the UK’s electricity last year compared with 41% generated from gas and coal plants together.

Onshore wind is part of a wider mix of energy generation with National Grid ESO using the most cost-effective mix of generation to balance supply and demand to make sure electricity is always there when people need it.

Our proposed Loch Liath Wind Farm is located within an area of good wind speeds. In addition, no national or internationally designated sites are located within the Developable Area. Therefore, we believe this is an excellent site to contribute to Scotland’s ambitions of reaching net zero emissions by 2045. 

At the start of a project, we will often look at a much wider area in our initial surveys, with the site boundary reflecting the boundaries of the landowner or owners that we are working with. Over the course of our surveys, we can find out which areas are suitable for turbines and which are not, reducing the area of the site we intend to work with.

Our final submission to the Scottish Government will include a reduced site boundary which reflects the area and scale of the project. This final version will include areas nearby where we hope to carry out biodiversity enhancement or peatland restoration.

A full suite of ornithological surveys has been undertaken at the site in line with current NatureScot guidance. This included monthly flight activity surveys as well as surveys for breeding upland birds, breeding raptors (including golden eagle), breeding divers and Slavonian grebes and black grouse.

The design of the wind farm has included appropriate buffers on known breeding sites identified through the surveys minimising the potential effects on birds.

Full details of the surveys undertaken will be presented in the EIA Report, which will be available as part of our final planning submission.

Extensive ecological surveys have been undertaken across the site for habitats and protected species as part of our Environmental Impact Assessment.

The survey findings show that the site supports a mosaic of typical upland habitats including blanket bog in addition to an extensive network of lochs and watercourses. The habitats are in variable condition across the site with some areas having been subject to grazing and other land management practices. The design of the wind farm has worked to avoid siting turbines and infrastructure on deep peat which supports sensitive habitats and localised habitat features of interest, such as bog pools, have been avoided where possible.

Overall, the site provides generally sub-optimal habitat for most species however surveys have been undertaken for wild cat, badger, red squirrel, pine marten, otter, bats and water vole. The surveys were agreed with NatureScot and have been completed in accordance with current NatureScot guidance.

Full details of the survey findings will be included in the EIA Report, including detailed information, photographs, figures and assessment of effects on habitats and protected species.

An extensive suite of surveys, undertaken to record and understand peatland across the proposed wind farm site, has now been completed.

Peat surveys aimed to record peat depths at regular intervals and have found that depths range from less than 0.5m to over 5m in some localised areas. This data has been used to inform the design of the scheme, which has included minimising infrastructure on the deepest areas of peat.

We will be submitting a peat management plan as part of our application for the proposed wind farm which will detail ways in which peat will be carefully and safely managed, to minimise any negative impacts on peatlands and their associated habitats. We will also be seeking to carry out restoration of peatland on the site.

Trees are carefully considered as part of the wind farm development process and this information will be publicly available in our planning application documents. 

In Scotland, a Government requirement to replant any felled trees came into force in 2009. Where trees are proposed to be felled, replanting plans are carefully designed to provide an overall improvement in biodiversity.

The project duration is likely to be approximately 35 years. After this time, the wind farm will be decommissioned, or an application submitted to have its life extended or re-powered.  

The route used for delivery of the turbine components will depend on the port used for delivery. The ports currently under consideration include Kyle of Lochalsh for blade loads and Corpach for tower and nacelle loads.
A detailed access review has been undertaken to identify any necessary road upgrade works required to accommodate the proposed loads between the ports and the project site.

We are refining the options for transport from the road and into the project site to minimise the amount of hand standing required to reduce disruption to the surrounding land.

The main impact on local roads will be associated with the movement of general HGV traffic travelling to and from the site during construction. This impact will be assessed as part of the EIA report. The report will also provide details on how construction traffic will be managed to help reduce inconvenience to other road users during the construction period.

Each turbine is likely to require between 12 and 14 'abnormal loads' to deliver the components to the site. The components will likely be delivered on extendable trailers which will then be retracted to the size of a standard HGV for the return journey. Detailed swept path analysis will be undertaken on the route from the port of entry to the site access junction to demonstrate that the turbine components can be delivered to site and to identify any temporary road works which may be necessary.

Once operational, the level of traffic associated with the wind farm will be greatly reduced and will be minimal. Regular monthly or weekly visits would be made for maintenance checks, most likely in 4x4 vehicles.  There may also be the occasional need for an HGV to access the wind farm for specific maintenance and/or repairs. Given that the numbers of vehicles accessing the site during operation are so low, a detailed assessment of this phase will not be undertaken as part of the EIA, as is standard practice for developments of this nature.

We are committed to setting up a Community Benefit Fund that will deliver approximately £429,000 per year to the local community (based on 13 6.6MW turbines and the Scottish Government's recommend community benifit fund value of £5,000 per installed MW per year).

Please let us know what areas you'd be interested in seeing this fund directed towards by filling in our feedback form.

Outside of the fund, other benefits we seek to deliver include using local suppliers where possible, offering an opportunity for shared ownership and potential broadband benefits.

If you are a local business, you can sign up to our supplier register here. 

Yes. We have a 'Local Supplier' registration link on the website and please get in touch if you are a local business and interested in the project.

We plan to organise 'Meet the Developer' events for businesses in the future and we are dedicated to working with the local supply chain.

An invitation to attend our online and in-person exhibitions has been sent to nearly 2,000 homes, advertised in the Press and Journal and advertised on social media to ensure that local residents know about the opportunity to provide feedback on the proposal. The invitation included a freepost reply card and an 0800 phone number for those who are unable to participate online or in-person.

We encourage consultees to visit the main project page to follow the project as it progresses.

This consultation website is temporary and will be available until 6 September. We will keep our Loch Liath Wind Farm project website updated with the latest news and milestones for the project.

You are encouraged to contact us directly to chat with one of the project team.

This is our second public exhibition, following our previous exhibition in 2021. Feedback can be provided up until 13 September. We will welcome questions and comments after this time, but it may mean feedback isn’t able to be considered before the plans are finalised.

We hope to submit a Section 36 application (to the Scottish Government) later in 2021. There is an opportunity to provide a formal representation to the Scottish Government – we will keep our project website updated with news on how to do this.