Green light for revised plans for Dava Moor wind farm
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Scottish Ministers have approved revised plans to build a wind farm near Grantown – despite an objection from Highland Council.
Renewable Energy Systems (RES) has expressed its delight after their plans for Cairn Duhie Wind Farm with 16 turbines and a tip height of 149.9 metres were granted on Friday.
The project was originally submitted in 2013 and consented in October 2017 by the Scottish Government, as a 20-turbine scheme with tip heights of 110m.
However in 2020 RES revised the design, according to them, "in order to optimise the site using modern turbines" and submitted the application the following year.
In February 2022, The Highland Council objected to the application with concerns over its visual impact on the area – which sparked a public inquiry which took place in December 2022 and January 2023.
Craig Smith, project manager for RES, commented: “Cairn Duhie is an excellent site for a wind farm and we’ve worked hard to carefully design an optimised scheme that maximises the volume of low cost renewable energy that can be generated, for the benefit of consumers.
“We’re delighted with the consent and pleased that the merits of the revised scheme have been recognised.”
According to RES, the project is predicted to deliver around £4.4 million of inward investment to the local area in the form of jobs, employment, and the use of local services during construction and the first year of operation.
The company will now seek to review and discharge any planning conditions.
The plant is expected to deliver an additional 67.2MW of renewable energy towards the Scottish and UK Government targets.
Badenoch and Strathspey Highland councillor Bill Lobban raised the objection at the meeting in February 2022.
He was unanimously supported over concerns about siting and design of the development having a ‘significant detrimental visual and accumulative impact’.
Councillor Lobban said at the time: “This is the wrong development in the wrong place and it remains so...
“The fact that the application sees a reduction in turbine numbers pales into insignificance with the massive increase in turbine height from 110 metres to 150 metres.
“I appreciate they have got existing consent but just because they have that does mean we should roll over and play dead.
“What they are talking about is like saying you have planning permission for a bungalow and then changing it to a four storey building."
