Bid being lined up for taller turbines at Tweedsmuir wind farm

The operator of a planned Borders wind farm given the green light three years ago despite widespread opposition is now hoping to increase its capacity and lifespan.
What the Whitelaw Brae wind farm near Tweedsmuir will look like.What the Whitelaw Brae wind farm near Tweedsmuir will look like.
What the Whitelaw Brae wind farm near Tweedsmuir will look like.

Plans for turbines on an 820-hectare site at Whitelaw Brae, two miles south of Tweedsmuir, have sparked numerous objections since first being unveiled in 2012.

Both Ettrick and Yarrow and Upper Tweed’s community councils objected to the proposals, originally for 27 turbines but later reduced to 14, and Scottish Borders Council planners rejected them twice.

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Borders MP David Mundell also warned that giving the 50-megawatt wind farm the go-ahead could harm the region’s tourism industry.

Scottish Government reporters David Buylla and Claire Milne overruled that near-unanimous opposition to the bid in 2017, however, and upheld an appeal by Greenock-based 2020 Renewables, granting it permission to proceed.

Now, Whitelaw Brae Windfarm, a subsidiary company of Glasgow-based BayWa Renewable Energy, itself part of a German-headquartered international operation, wants to extend the operational life of the development from 25 years to 30 years and increase the turbines’ tip height by three metres to 136.5m.

An environmental impact assessment screening opinion report has been submitted to Scottish Borders Council planners ahead of a potential future planning application for the changes being sought.

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A spokesperson for BayWa said: “Since submission of the original application in December 2014, the UK Government has ended all new subsidies for onshore wind, and although this policy is currently under review, the economic climate for onshore wind farms has changed considerably since 2014, such that the output of all windfarms must be maximised in order to ensure they are economically viable.

“This report and assessment has not identified any predicted significant environmental effects arising from the proposals.”

Former UK Government Scottish secretary Mr Mundell remains of the view that there is an oveproliferation of wind farms in his Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale constituency, though.

“There are already significant numbers of turbines in the Tweedsmuir area,” he said.

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“New and larger turbines risk further overwhelming the landscape, not only for local people but also potential visitors.

“After coronavirus, we will need to do all we can to encourage tourists to come back to the Borders, walkers and cyclists of all sorts in particular.

“I don’t believe that further turbines will make the area any more attractive to them.

“We’ve also got the Tweed path, from source to sea, coming, which is good news, and again I don’t see how additional turbines will help.”