The site, located between Greengairs and Caldercruix, in North Lanarkshire was originally granted consent in January 2019.
An application to vary the current consent was submitted to North Lanarkshire Council on 24th of October 2019. That application was to facilitate the installation of modern turbines, capable of producing approximately twice as much electricity as the previously consented development. To achieve the additional generation, the overall height of the turbines has increased from 125m to blade tip to149.9m, which allows the full potential and efficiency of the project to be realised.
On the 24th of September 2020, the variation application was consented. Muirhall Energy is currently working to discharge the conditions attached to the consent and it is anticipated that construction will commence in 2021.
Muirhall Energy will arrange local information events prior to construction to allow communities and businesses to understand more about the project. Due to the ongoing COVID 19 restrictions it is currently unclear how these will be delivered, but Muirhall Energy is exploring a number of options which will allow us to organise these events, while adhering to social distancing guidelines..
Memorandums of Understanding have been agreed with four community groups to administer a community investment fund of £5,000 per megawatt of installed capacity. We anticipate the combined annual fund will be in the region of £192,000 per annum, or £4.8m over the lifetime of the wind farm; a boost from £120,000 per annum, reflecting the increased generation potential of the higher tip-height.
Muirhall Energy is committed to working with local companies to maximise the wider economic benefits of the development in the community.
The planning consent which was awarded by North Lanarkshire Council in January 2019 for 8 turbines is available to view through North Lanarkshire Council’s online planning portal under the reference number 12/00602/FUL.
The 2019 application to modify turbine sizes can be accessed using the reference number 19/01292/S42.
Planning approval for the variation application was granted by North Lanarkshire Council in September 2020
The planning portal can be accessed here:https://eplanning.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/online-applications/search.do?action=simple&searchType=Application