A new 15-turbine wind farm, 2km from Crawfordjohn in South Lanarkshire, which has the potential to power almost 28,000 homes in the area and generate community benefit funding of £6.37 million over its lifetime, has been granted planning consent.
The proposed Middle Muir wind farm, which will be developed by Banks Renewables Limited, will have a maximum generating capacity of around 60MW, and between 25 to 50 jobs will be created during the construction and decommissioning of the development.
The original application was for 17 turbines, however Mr Ewing has refused consent for two of the proposed turbines, in order to mitigate landscape and visual impacts.
Mr Ewing said:
“The Middle Muir wind farm will create jobs both in its construction, and during its lifetime. In addition it will bring £6.37 million of community benefit funding for local communities and will also be able to produce enough electricity to power almost 28,000 homes.
“Once it is up and running the wind farm will help reduce carbon emissions from our electricity generation, aiding Scotland’s work to tackle climate change.
“Wind farms, like Middle Muir, play an important part in helping Scotland reach its target of the equivalent of 100 per cent of electricity demand generated from renewables. Only yesterday we heard from the Department of Energy and Climate Change that Scotland’s renewable electricity generation in the first half of 2014 was 30 per cent higher compared to the same period in 2013. This overall increase is primarily due to a 50 per cent increase in hydro generation and a 20 per cent increase in wind output.
“We are already providing over a third of the UK’s renewable electricity generation and helping to keep the lights on across our islands at a time where there is an increasingly tight gap between electricity supply and demand.”