Find your frequently asked questions here

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.

Giant's Burn Wind Farm is one of two development projects for Statkraft within Argyll and Bute Council Area.  We have submitted a planning application for the An Càrr Dubh Wind Farm near Inveraray in March 2023.  You can read more about it here.

Giant's Burn Wind Farm is located in the Argyll and Bute Council area, approximately 2.5km north-west of Dunoon and 1.9km south-west of Sandbank.

The Scottish Government has a target to achieve net zero by 2045. Onshore wind is expected to play a key role in achieving this aim.

Since the time that previous projects were refused in the local area, a new planning policy, National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4), has been introduced. NPF4 provides that renewable energy schemes should be given a planning presumption in favour, as long as they can demonstrate that the environmental benefits outweigh the impacts, and they deliver a range of other benefits e.g. ecological and socio-economic.

This led us to revisit the proposed site, with the aim to develop a project that strikes the right balance between maximising electricity output while carefully siting and designing the proposal to relate to the landscape, including local settlements.

Our proposed Giant’s Burn Wind Farm is located within an area of predicted good wind speeds, and no nationally or internationally designated sites are within the site boundary. It has a nearby grid connection and good access, and we believe that the site meets all the criteria for a wind farm under NPF4.

Our revised proposal has reduced the number of turbines from nine to seven.

Since the first exhibition we have carried out further studies and listened to your feedback. Our revised proposal has reduced the number of turbines to seven, six turbines with a maximum blade tip height of 200 metres and one turbine with a maximum of 180 metres.

As the wind industry has developed so has turbine technology, with taller turbines becoming the norm in the post-subsidy world. Taller turbines of 180m-200m tip height capture more energy and are more efficient, meaning that far fewer turbines are required to produce the equivalent amount of electricity within a site boundary, than the previous generation of turbines. In addition, fewer turbines on a site may also result in a lower infrastructure footprint, further reducing overall impact on the local environment. 

You can see the proposed layout of the site under project documents.

Should the proposal be submitted to the Energy Consents Unit, the application will also seek consent for the necessary infrastructure and other requirements for the project.  This will include, tracks, a substation, laydown areas, construction compounds, energy storage systems, site entrance, met mast and other ancillary infrastructure. 

At the public exhibition events we presented our proposed delivery route via the Rest and be Thankful on the A83. This route is what will be presented within the application, but we are also looking at other potential delivery routes and methods, e.g. by sea, to understand all viable options for the project. 

Civil Aviation Authority regulations require aviation lighting on wind turbines over 150 metres. We will seek to minimise the number of turbines with aviation lighting and the details, including night-time viewpoint locations and visualisations, will be available in our planning application. 

Noise assessments have been undertaken in line with industry good practice guidance ETSU-R-97. The assessments also take into account any other wind farms in the area, consented or currently in planning and will ensure that the proposed project operates within the required noise limits

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.

To maximise the opportunities for renewable energy on site, Statkraft are assessing the potential for storage to be included in the planning application.

We are currently working with SSEN on a proposal to connect the wind farm at Dunoon substation. Should the project be consented, the grid connection would be the responsibility of SSEN and would be subject to a separate consenting process by them.

A flood risk assessment has been undertaken, considering local topography, soil conditions and existing water pathways. All new permanent watercourse crossings will be designed to accommodate the 1-200 year event under the latest SEPA guidance with an allowance for climate change. 

All watercourses have been buffered by a minimum of 50 m, where practicable. Mitigation measures, such as construction Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) and interceptor drainage ditches, will be utilised as part of embedded mitigation during construction and operation to mitigate surface water run-off. 

Protecting the environment is a major part of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which we undertake as part of our application. In agreement with NatureScot, we conducted a robust series of surveys to map the flora and fauna on our site. We design around these and propose mitigations for any impacts on them.  

Our EIA Consultants carry out surveys of the landscape around our project areas, including detailed peat probing. This allows them to map the depth and condition of the peat on site. We will avoid deep peat where possible. We will carry out peatland restoration on areas of peat which are in poor condition, using peat we excavate from our construction areas, as well as other techniques which foster a healthy peatland environment. This helps to reverse damage previously done through removal of peat for fuel, or damage from other land use such as over-grazing.  

For some general reading on this important topic, refer to the Scottish Renewables document Wind Power and Peatland.

We calculate the impact of the wind farm on carbon emissions using the Scottish Government Carbon Calculator and this is submitted as part of our application. As wind farms reduce our reliance on fossil fuel based energy, the carbon emitted during the construction or operation of the wind farm is typically offset within two years. 

Consultants undertake years of detailed environmental surveys of habitat, ecology and ornithology among others, in line with NatureScot guidance. This information is used to establish the baseline information for habitats on site and to help inform the proposed layout of the project. We work closely with the consultants to minimise impacts as we work towards finalising our design and aim to deliver a positive biodiversity impact.  

Biodiversity enhancement measures specific to the area are being considered and will be outlined in the Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR), with the application submission. This also includes peatland restoration in line with current NatureScot guidance. 

The operational lifespan of the project is likely to be up to 50 years.  After this time, the wind farm will either be decommissioned, have it's life extended or re-powered.  A bond is put in place before construction starts and that bond is used to decommission the project at the end of its lifetime.

The proposed development is expected to make use of existing forestry tracks to access the site.  Where felling is required to accommodate the wind farm, we will seek to minimise the loss of woodland area in accordance with Scottish Government's Control of Woodland Removal Policy (Forestry and Land Scotland, 2009)

The second series of public exhibitions are being held 31 March - 21 April. The project team will be there to share our updated proposals for Giant’s Burn Wind Farm.

Simliar to our first exhibition over 10,000 households and businesses surrounding the site within the Argyll and Bute local authority were sent invites to attend, landing on doormats from 17 March, and advertisements were placed in the local Dunoon Observer 21 March and 28 March 2025.  

The exhibition will provide residents and other interested parties the opportunity to review our proposals and provide their views.For those unable to attend our in-person events, an online exhibition will be available between 31 March – 21 April 2025, via a link on this website.  The website link will be available from 31 March 2025.

Residents can provide comments and feedback by completing a feedback form on the project website, by completing a feedback form received with Public Exhibitions Invitation or by coming along to the in-person exhibitions. All feedback must be receveid by 21 April 2025.

We plan to submit our application in early summer 2025. We will advertise when this has happened. There will be an opportunity to submit a formal representation about your views on the project to the Scottish Government Energy Consents Unit

The website will be kept up to date with the latest project information and news. 

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 a community benefit fund for Giant's Burn Wind Farm of £5,000 per MW of wind 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.  

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 Giant's Burn wind farm 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.

Yes. We have a 'Local suppliers' registration link on the website and please get in touch if you are a local business and interested in the project.  We are keen to work with local business organisations such as the Chamber of Commerce and we plan to organise 'Meet the Developer' events for businesses in the future to facilitate working with the local supply chain.

We are often asked by people if we can help deliver faster broadband, or even get them connected in the first place.

We need high quality broadband to operate our wind farms, including for Giant's Burn if it is consented.  As we require broadband, we have commiteed to explore whether it can also help benefit the local and wider community as well. We believe we are the only developer to commit to funding a feasibility study to look into the potential for fibre and wireless line of sight broadband for all our wind farm projects.