Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Moray wind farm to expand despite council objection

Post Thumbnail

A Moray wind farm is poised to undergo expansion, despite councillors objecting to the development and launching a public inquiry.

Renewable Energy Systems (RES) tabled plans to expand the Hill of Towie site, near Drummuir, from 21 to 37 turbines more than three years ago.

But Moray Council’s planning committee raised an objection to the extension – and urged the Scottish Government to knock it back.

However, the scheme has now been given the go-ahead by SNP ministers and a construction programme for the new turbines – measuring up to 400ft tall – is being devised.

Head of projects for RES, Simon Peltenburg, christened the project “Hill of Towie II” as he welcomed the decision.

He said: “Onshore wind is now the cheapest form of any new generation, bar none, and Hill of Towie II will therefore play an important part in helping to make the important transition to a low-cost, low-carbon future for Scotland.

“This decision is good news for the environment and for bill payers.”

Proposals to expand the wind farm between Keith and Dufftown originally came before Moray Council in February 2014.

Members of the planning committee tied at 5-5 when debating whether to object to the scheme.

The then chairman of the group, Douglas Ross, used his casting vote to pave the way for an objection and trigger a public inquiry.

Mr Ross is now MP for Moray and yesterday slammed the government’s decision to approve the expansion as “undemocratic”.

He said: “Locally elected councillors took a democratic decision to object to this expansion, and the public will rightly question why SNP ministers think they know best, and are pressing ahead regardless.

“The SNP’s obsession with wind energy now results in local decisions being thrown out in an effort to support its national strategy.”

Mr Peltenburg stressed that the new turbines will be “carefully designed”, and will utilise much of the existing infrastructure during construction to minimise disruption.

Design firm LDA added that such analysis had helped mitigate the concerns raised by councillors.

The upcoming work will increase the wind energy produced at Hill of Towie to 48MW – enough to power more than 26,000 houses a year.

It is expected that, during construction and its first year of operation, Hill of Towie II will create more than £4.4million of inward investment.