Burn of Whilk Wind Farm

An application for the nine turbine Burn of Whilk Wind Farm, 11 km south west of Wick in Caithness was unanimously approved by members of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Planning Committee on 29th March 2011

The scheme of up to 27 megawatts between East Clyth and the Loch of Warehouse, was recommended for approval by Highland Council’s Planning Officer following changes to the original proposal.

Project developer Alastair Yule said: “We are naturally very pleased with this outcome. Gaining consent has proved to be a long process as we initially submitted a planning application in 2006. Since then we have listened to and taken on board comments from the public and statutory consultees which has resulted in several amendments to the original plan, including reducing the number of turbines from 13 to nine.

“We feel we have designed a wind farm that is appropriate for the area in terms of the location, number and size of the turbines. This was further verified to us after we received no objections from our statutory consultees.”

The site benefits from

+ Good wind speeds
+ Good access
+ Good separation distance between turbines and residential properties
+ A location outwith any landscape or ecological designations.

When operational, the scheme could supply the average annual domestic
electricity needs of around 11,600 homes*.

The project is currently expected to enter the construction phase in Spring 2013.

Footnote
*Energy predicted to be generated by the proposal has been calculated using an assumed capacity factor of 30 % (DTI Energy Trends UK regional capacity factors 1998-2004), and is based on an installed capacity of 20.7 MW. The energy capture predicted and hence derived homes equivalent or missions savings figures may change as site specific information is gathered. Equivalent homes supplied is based on an annual electricity consumption per home of 4700 kWh. This figure is supported by recent domestic electricity consumption data available from The Digest of UK Energy Statistics and household estimates and projections from the UK Statistics Authority.