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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.

Statkraft is a global company in energy market operations, more than 7,000 employees in over 20 countries.  

We’ve invested over £1.4 billion in the UK's renewable energy infrastructure and facilitated over 4.3 GW of new-build renewable energy generation through Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). 

Across our UK businesses we employ more than 550 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.

Read more about Statkraft UK.

Oliver Forest is the first development project for Statkraft within Scottish Borders Council Area. We currently are developing West Andershaw in the neighbouring council area of South Lanarkshire, and Appin in Dumfries and Galloway Council area.  

In addition to developing these projects, we operate Andershaw in South Lanarkshire and Twentyshilling Hill, near Sanquhar and Windy Rig near Carsphairn in Dumfries and Galloway.  

Oliver Forest Wind Farm is located in the Scottish Borders north west of the A701 between Tweedsmuir and Glenbreck, approximately 12.5km south of Broughton and approximately 19 km north of Moffat. 

To keep up to date throughout the project's development, please register for updates and feel free to Get in touch.

There is less than c.10% of the land area in Scotland which 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.  In 2020 the UK's electricity generation had an energy mix of 43% with onshore wind contributing 21% compared to the 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. 

We are proposing 7 turbines up to 200m.  

The original layout that we proposed and that was submitting to Scoping (December 2022) and we presented at our first exhibition over February and March 2023, consisted of up to 10 turbines.

We are proposing a turbine height of up to 200m to blade tip.

This has reduced from 250m to blade tip height which was presented during our first exhibition, held over February and March last year. 

Our proposed tip heights are similar in size to the consented Priestgill Wind Farm (variation) near Abington - approximately 10.5 km west of the site, 7 turbines with a height to blade tip between 180m and 200m and similar to the originally proposed 21 turbine Grayside Wind Farm, with tip heights of up to 200 m currently being considered.

The nearest operational wind farms to our proposal are Clyde Wind Farm and Extension, near Abington, with a total of 206 turbines with height to blade tip between 125m and 142m and Glenkerie Wind Farm, near Biggar, with 11 turbines with a maximum height to blade tip between 100m and 118m.

As we develop the wind farm we are mindful to develop a scheme that fits within the landscape and existing developments.  As our plans develop, we will share how the proposal will look from agreed viewpoints.  

We submitted our application in September 2024 for 7 turbines up to 200m an dwe are also seeking consent for the necessary infrastructure and other requirements for the project. This includes, tracks, a substation, laydown areas, construction compounds, opportunity for an energy storage systems, site entrance,  met mast and other ancillary infrastructure.  

Full details are available in the Environmental Impact Assessment Report which has been submitted along with the application.  

Statkraft are at the forefront of battery and grid stability projects, which are increasingly vital as the amount of renewable energy generation in the UK increases. 

Statkraft are are applying for the opportunity to including storage at this site.

We are assessing  a number of grid options to facilitate a grid connection for Oliver Forest, which is not yet determined.  The grid connection would be the responsibility of ScottishPower Energy Networks (SPEN) and would be subject to a separate consenting process by them.

Oliver Forest is expected to generate the equivalent household consumption of just over 46,500 homes*.  As onshore wind is the lowest cost renewable energy deployment this is good news for bill payers.

* 46,500 homes based on 50.4MW Installed Capacity, wind resource assessment and average Scottish domestic consumption of 3,520kWh pa (DESNZ Dec. 2021).  Candidate turbine still tbc'd.

We have agreed with Scottish Borders Council, South Lanarkshire Council, Dumfries and Galloway Council and NatureScot viewpoints for the project.  A full set of visualisations are available to view as part of the application submitted to the Scottish Government Energy Consents Unit in September 2024.  

We have carried out peat probing to understand the extent of peat on site.  The site is characterised by suitable ground conditions.  An initial survey of peat probing across the site only indicated some isolated areas of deeper peat. The final design aimed to minimise any impact on peat, as far as possible.   You can read more about this in our planning application.

Extensive ecology and ornithology surveys were undertaken on the site form March 2022 and will be completed in April 2024.

The surveys looked at the different habitats present and also identified the use of the site by birds amphibians, fish and mammals and fish.  There are no national ecological or ornithological destinations within the site.

Biodiversity enhancement measures are being considered and are outlined in the EIA Report submitted as part of our application. 

The Proposed Development is on a site of commercial forestry.  Where additional felling is required to accommodate the wind farm, we will seek to minimise the loss of woodland area in accordance with the Scottish Government's Control of Woodland Removal Policy (Forestry Commission Scotland, 2009).

Background noise monitoring was carried out at representative locations around the site in June and July 2023. The background noise levels will be used to determine the noise limits that the wind farm would have to operate within.

If the project is consented, the construction date will be determined by the grid connection date. We would expect construction to commence approximately 18 – 24 months ahead of the connection date.

The proposed Port of Entry (POE) is King George V docks in Glasgow via the M74. This route has been used previously for other wind farm deliveries like Clyde and Clyde extension wind Farm.

It is proposed that the transport route to the site would be from the A701 via an upgraded forest access junction.

We submitted a Section 36 application (to the Scottish Government) in September 2024. There is now an opportunity to provide a formal representation to the Scottish Government.  Find out more about the application and how to submit your representations. 

Community engagement is very important to us and when the project was first introduced, December 2022, we wrote to the host and surrounding community councils and local Councillors to introduce the project and gather their initial views.  We offered the opportunity to meet with these key stakeholders and we were pleased to meet with Tweedsmuir Community Council at the beginning of 2023.   

We held our first public exhibition in February March 2023 to gather the views of the wider community.  Feedback from the community and consultees have helped shape the revised project design.

Our second exhibition period was held 12 months later over February and March 2024.  At the start of both exhibition periods we wrote to all households surrounding the site with information about the project and including a feedback form to gather their views.  We have written back to everyone who submitted a feedback form to answer their queries (if they have provided us permission to do so).   In February 2024 we were also been pleased to meet with both Tweedsmuir and Upper Tweed Community Council.

If interested, whether a local resident or a business, you can register for updates on the Get in touch page and we will contact you as we progress the plans.  We follow all GDPR guidelines in relation to personal data and you can opt out at any time.

Yes. Statkraft are committed to delivering community benefit fund for Oliver Forest Wind Farm of £5,000 per MW installed per annum in line with Scottish Government Good Practice Principles, should the project be consented.

We are not prescriptive in how community benefit funds are set up and administered and look forward to working with communities to create a community benefit fund that delivers meaningful benefits to communities surrounding the development.  

We will follow the Good Practice Principles for Community Benefits and have no strong preference how a fund is administered - we want the community to help decide how best a fund is run for the benefit of the local area.   

We would like to hear the views of the community on all aspects of how a fund can bring meaningful benefits locally.  Please fill in the feedback form if you would like to share your ideas regarding initiatives for community benefit funding. 

The biggest opportunity to bring local jobs is during the construction phase. 

Statkraft always endeavours to be a good neighbour and when bringing new investment to the community, we look at how we can share the economic value of our projects. As such, we will look to develop links with local business groups such as the  Chamber of Commerce to understand the mutual benefits of using local suppliers. We are keen to work with local suppliers. Please fill in the Local suppliers registration form if you are a local company interested in being a supplier, or if you would like to suggest a company we could contact.

We would like to hear your ideas as to how our project can foster links with local businesses.

We are committed to offering shared ownership for the Oliver Forest wind farm project and are happy to follow this up should there be interest within the community to explore this further.

We work with Local Energy Scotland to explore community ownership opportunities and we can arrange separate meetings with them if there is interest.