Sunday 26 January 2014

Scotland approves energy projects worth £390m

A wind farm and a biomass project worth £390 million in total have been given the green light by the Scottish Government.

Developer Eneco Wind UK will build the £65 million Moy wind farm near Inverness with 20 turbines. It will have a total capacity of up to 66MW – enough to power around 31,000 homes.

The Rosyth biomass facility, worth £325 million, will be built by Forth Energy and could provide the equivalent of around 40% of the Fife Council area’s electricity needs.

The projects are expected to create more than 500 jobs in country.

Energy Minister Fergus Ewing gave the green light for the Fife project. He said: “In consenting this application I have put in place a series of conditions to protect local residents from inconvenience and protect the environment and air quality. The conditions to the consent also ensure that the fuel used in the biomass is from sustainable and responsible sources.”

John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth, who approved the wind farm said: “Projects like this provide considerable benefits to the local community and play an important part in helping Scotland reach its target of 100% of electricity demand generated from renewables.”