Green energy developer Infinergy has submitted plans for an extension to their consented 21-turbine wind farm at Limekiln, south of Reay in Caithness. The extension of five turbines sits adjacent to the consented scheme on the Achaveilan North and Broubster Estates, both of which are managed primarily as commercial forestry plantations.
Esbjorn Wilmar, Managing Director of Infinergy said: “The capacity of the grid connection available for Limekiln Wind Farm has allowed us to look at the opportunity to increase the renewable power generated at a site which, like Limekiln, has a long history of commercial land use.”
Located to the east of Limekiln Estate, the proposal consists of 5 turbines which could add an additional 21MW of installed capacity and would have the potential to supply the equivalent of the average annual domestic electricity needs of over 18,494 homes, bringing the total number of homes supplied to nearly 50,000.
Construction, commissioning and site restoration are anticipated to take around 18 months, with potential opportunities for local companies and local workforce to be involved. The 5-turbine scheme, which also incorporates a battery storage array includes plans for a connecting path to link the Limekiln Forest and Broubster Forest Core Paths, thereby improving access in the area.
Community consultation around the scheme took place in November last year and while the current situation means that no physical documents are available for the public to view, the documents are all available as downloads from the website www.limekilnwindfarm.co.uk and Infinergy will send a CD or USB copy to anyone who requests one by emailing [email protected] .
Limekiln Wind Farm comes with a community benefit fund of £5000 per MW of installed capacity, and this extension would add in the region of £100,000 per year to that fund, adding further value to the communities of Caithness.
Limekiln Wind Farm Extension is another of the projects that Infinergy is progressing with partner Boralex. The 50-50 joint venture agreement announced in October 2017 is aimed at developing a pipeline of onshore wind projects essentially located in Scotland for a total estimated capacity of 325 MW.
A note of the ECU reference number will be posted here to allow members of the public to submit representations once it is available. You can find all the applicaiton documents on our downloads page.