SSE Receives Consent for Fairburn Wind Farm

Scottish and Southern Energy has received planning permission from The Highland Council to develop a 40MW wind farm at Fairburn in Ross-shire, UK.

The wind farm will have 20 turbines and, subject to a final investment decision, construction work is expected to begin later in 2008. The company said that its development will require an investment of approximately GBP45 million.

When Fairburn is commissioned, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) will have 315MW of installed onshore wind farm capacity. This includes the Drumderg, Toddleburn and Achanay wind farms, all of which have planning consent and which are at various stages of development. It will be SSE’s eighth onshore wind farm.

SSE’s agreement to acquire Airtricity Holdings, when completed, will add 308MW of operating onshore wind farm capacity to its portfolio and 291MW of onshore wind farms with full consent and/or under construction.

Ian Marchant, CEO of SSE, said: “This is a very good result which reflects the hard work of our project development team. The success at Fairburn means we have secured consent for four separate wind farm developments in 16 months. The combination of our growing portfolio of wind farm assets and those of Airtricity will further reinforce our position as the UK’s leading generator of electricity from renewable sources.”