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...but seeks to speed up planning consent

A new wind farm bid near Tweeddale has been put forward to the Scottish Borders Council’s planning committee.

The intervention of East Lothian Council leader, Councillor Norman Hampshire, to object to a proposed wind farm in the Lammermuir Hills encapsulates the major concerns regarding further wind development.

The revelation that Scotland is lagging behind in the manufacturing and fabrication of turbines and offshore infrastructure has raised interesting questions about renewable energy in Scotland.

The new Labour government has made its position on wind energy very clear, and early polling suggests this isn’t going unnoticed, but there’s no denying that enormous challenges remain.

This proposed development near Heriot has been repeatedly rejected. The developer has now launched a further appeal to Scottish Borders Council.

Some fascinating new research by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF), as reported in the Daily Mail, has revealed that constraint payments – the cash that is paid by taxpayers to wind farm operators to switch off their wind farms when the grid risks being overloaded – is set to reach record levels this year.

An application has been submitted to construct a 27MW solar farm at the Crystal Rig Wind Farm.

The decision by councillors to reject Wull Muir Wind Farm at the Scottish Borders Council Planning Committee meeting earlier this month has raised some very interesting questions about how the national planning framework (NPF4) is applied when it comes to planning matters.

Dun Lees Hill SOS “Save Our Skyline” has issued the following press release about a major RAF training space under threat in Berwickshire.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced an immediate end to the de facto ban on onshore wind development in England in order to accelerate planning decisions.

An application to build a wind farm near Heriot in the Scottish Borders was today rejected for the third time.

Wull Muir Wind Farm has been rejected twice before over fears of it developing “a wind farm landscape” in the Scottish Borders, however in the past week Scottish Borders Council’s (SBC) chief planning officer has recommended its approval.

A Borders community council has said their community feels ‘dismayed’ by a Scottish Borders Council official’s decision to support a new wind farm despite it being rejected twice already, as well as receiving outright opposition from the local authority’s own landscape expert.

Fred Olsen Renewables has decided not to proceed with its Hearthstanes wind farm, planned for a site on the Hearthstanes Estate

Locals, residents and businesses are being invited to a meeting on 25 June at Duns Volunteer Hall to discuss the plans for Lees Hill Renewable Energy Park in Berwickshire.

Borders Wind Farm Watch, a community initiative concerned about planning procedures for larger wind farm applications, has submitted a response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on resourcing Scotland’s planning system.

In response to growing concern about the significant proliferation of wind farms and their impact on nature, the landscape and residential areas, a new initiative – Borders Wind Farm Watch – has been formed to monitor wind farm development in the Scottish Borders.

EDF Renewables has scaled back its design for Liddesdale wind farm in the Scottish Borders after conducting a 12-month consultation with locals. The new design will see the number of turbines cut by a quarter, with 59 turbines now being proposed rather than 80.

Scotland cannot become a giant renewable electricity transmission station – Kenny MacAskill