The turbine will be located 1 km north of the B8001 Skipness road. This is 2.5 km from the village of Whitehouse. The site is part of a commercial coniferous wood, which is due to be replanted with a greater mix of native deciduous species as part of the long term forest management plan. Commercial forestry is an important and, if correctly managed, sustainable source of timber and carbon sequestration services. It is also an important industry in Argyll & Bute. From the point of view of a wind farm it has pros and cons. In favour is the fact the commercial forestry is generally regarded as being of low biodiversity and amenity value. Against is the fact that it tends to reduce the wind resource in somewhat unpredictable ways. Many windfarms have tackled this by felling the trees. We propose an alternative approach here which is to maintain the forestry but use a turbine design which should mitigate the wind sheltering effects of the trees.
Kintyre is has a very good wind speed resource generally which means that turbines located here provide substantially more power to the grid than in lower windspeed areas. In theory, wind energy is proportional to the cube of the wind speed — if the wind speed doubles, the energy increases by a factor of 8 — so this is a very powerful relationship! In practice, wind turbines designed for the real world soften this effect somewhat but it remains very strong.
Other considerations play an important role in the site selection, including practicality and cost of connection to the grid, site access for delivery of large components, location of environmental designations, telecoms links crossing sites, and civil and military aviation radar issues. The site is not located within any areas designated for their environmental sensitivity and has been independently assessed in the following areas: Ecology, Cultural Heritage, Noise, Hydrology and Drainage, Aviation, Telecommunications and Transport. There are no significant issues in these areas.
As part of the planning process a number of statutory bodies responsible for these matters have been consulted as to any objections they may have regarding the proposed development. No statutory body has raised an objection to the proposal. The proportion of the country and the UK where this would be the case is very small indeed.
Additionally, the nearest houses are approximately 1-1.2km from the site and the nearest settlement is approximately 3km from the proposal, far enough to ensure no noise interference at all. The visual impact from this distance can perhaps imagined from a photograph which shows a similar setup at an operating site with which Genesis is involved in Keith, Moray — see under Turbine.
The area is not a designated site of ecological interest, and the development will not affect designated sites nearby. The area is currently mature coniferous plantation (Sitka Spruce), which is generally considered of low ecological value. The woodland has a long term management plan which will see re-planting with native deciduous species to improve the biodiversity. The turbine location has been chosen to minimise the loss of relatively undisturbed habitats that are not currently coniferous forest (such as forest rides and open patches). A buffer of 50 m is applied, as per SNH guidance to between turbine works and watercourses. Areas where more substantial work would take place (such as foundation work) have a 100 m buffer from watercourses. The total habitat loss associated with the works would be 0.74 ha.
The bird survey here found no indication of vulnerable or protected species nesting within 2 km. Species that are known to hunt within 2 km of the turbine such as Hen Harrier are typically at very low risk of being impacted by turbines because their typical flight height for hunting is below 20 m, well below the lowest blade height of 36 m [*]. Golden Eagle are seen in the north of Kintyre, but this species does not hunt in closed forests and on the guidance of the RSPB a buffer of woodland will be kept between the turbine and the open ground above the forest.