Wind2 Submits Section 36 Planning Application for Lairdmannoch Energy Park
The application outlines proposals for Lairdmannoch Energy Park, a renewable energy project.
Wind2 has submitted a Section 36 Application to the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit which, if consented, will support Scotland’s climate and renewable energy targets.
The project, which is located 7km northeast of Gatehouse of Fleet and 10km west of Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway, has a grid connection date set for 2030, aligning with the UK Government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, which aims to deliver a fully decarbonised electricity system by the end of the decade.
The proposed 100MW Energy Park scheme consists of:
- Nine wind turbines of up to 180 metres in tip height,
- 20MW of solar photovoltaic panels, and
- A 20MW battery energy storage system (BESS).
A comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been completed to support the application. The EIA outlines the predicted impacts and mitigation measures across a variety of environmental considerations, including but not limited to, cultural heritage, landscape and visual impact, ornithology, ecology, noise and hydrology. The assessment also incorporates the embedded mitigation through design, reflecting the team’s efforts to minimise environmental and community impacts from the outset.
Niall Hunter, Project Manager at Wind2, commented: “We are pleased to have submitted the section 36 application to the Scottish Government’s Energy Consent Unit. The team has been working on the project since 2020 and this is a key milestone in our journey, to create a leading renewable energy project that can help deliver on broader government decarbonisation targets.
Throughout the design and development process, the Lairdmannoch Energy Park team worked closely with the local community to consult on the proposed plans.
Feedback resulted in an evolution of the project to create an alternative access route and undertake further assessments ahead of the final application. It has been extremely rewarding to see how meaningful engagement can lead to tangible improvements in the project design, from a well aligned access route to removing areas of solar panels to address local concerns with regards to residential visual amenity.”
All application documents are available via the following link as well as the Scottish Government Energy Consents Unit website using the reference ECU00004900, with hard copies also available at the Dumfries and Galloway Council offices and at the Kirkcudbright Library (Daar Road, Kirkcudbright, DG6 4PJ).
Formal notices and guidance on how to make representations will be published in Galloway News, Edinburgh Gazette and the Herald.
Lairdmannoch Energy Park is being developed by Lairdmannoch Energy Park Limited (the Applicant), which forms part of a joint venture between Wind 2 Limited (Wind2) and two investment funds – Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust plc (ORIT) and Sky – both managed by Octopus Energy Generation.