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 and EV charging.

Statkraft is a global company in energy market operations, with over 6000 employees in over 20 countries.

Across our UK business we employ over 450 staff in England, Scotland and Wales and play a key role in helping the global business reach its goal of 9 GW of development wind and solar power by 2025.

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 2.1km north-west of Dunoon and 1.5km south-west of Sandbank.

The layout that we submitted to scoping (February 2024) proposes up to 9 turbines.

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

The size and location of the turbines are not fixed yet, further studies and consultation over the development period will help confirm the final layout and the turbine height at each location.

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. 

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.

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 first series of public exhibitions are to be held between 15 April and 5th May.  These will he held on line and in person you can read more about the exhibitions at our project updates.  We look forward to meeting local members of the community over the 24 and 25 April at Innellan, Dunoon, Kilmun and Cove, to hear their views on the project.

To ensure as many people know about the event we have written to over 10,000 households and businesses surrounding the project, the invites are expected to land on the 15 April.  An advert has also been placed in the Dunoon Advertiser on the 12 and 19 of April, a copy of the advert has been shared with local community councils and Councillors to share on their social media channels.   

Following the project being introduced into the public domain when the Scoping Report published on the Energy Consent Units website (live March 2024), we wrote to local Community Councils, Elected Representatives and made this project website live.  The aim of the website is to help keep people informed about the project and provide an opportunity for them to  provide feedback on the proposal.  

We look forward to meeting with several community councils in May to present the project, share the inital outcomes from the exhibitions and gather their views directly.  Feedback from the community and consultees will help shape the design of the project.  

We will host a further Public Exhibition later in the year, to show where we have been able to incorporate community feedback into the proposals. 

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.

Following this scoping stage and the first public exhibition, we will evaluate all feedback and will use it to help refine our proposal.  

We can still answer questions and receive feedback after the scoping period and first exhibition and where we can we will do our best to incorporate it.  However, the closer the Development gets towards the second Public Exhibitions or planning submission it may mean that there isn't sufficient time to consider your comments before the plans are finalised. We therefore encourage you to provide your feedback early.

We hope to submit a Section 36 application (to the Scottish Government) in Winter/Spring 2025. There will be an opportunity to provide a formal representation to the Scottish Government at this point - we will keep our project website updated with news on how to do this.

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 communtiy 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.