The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Green light for massive windfarm cable project
PLANNING: Angus communities in line to benefit – after two years of disruption
Angus communities are bracing themselves for one of the county’s biggest infrastructure projects after councillors approved plans for a massive underground renewables cable.
The connection will bring enough electricity for one million homes from the Seagreen Offshore Wind Farm off the Angus coast on to land at Carnoustie, before running 19km underground to a substation at Tealing.
Sse-owned Seagreen Wind Energy has promised construction of the 100 turbine windfarm – which begins imminently and will be Scotland’s largest when finished – will deliver around 400 jobs as well as at least £1.8 million in community benefit grants.
Seagreen will base its operations at Montrose Port.
Councillors have been warned of up to two years of disruption as the cable is buried in three trenches within 100 metres of homes and a school, across several paths and under key transport routes such as the A92 and the rail line.
Golfers and walkers in Carnoustie will be directly affected as the cable is buried beneath the Buddon Links golf course.
Residents in the seaside town will also have to live with the noise of 24-hour-a day drilling for up to a week as engineers cut through rock armour on the town’s coastline, it emerged during an Angus Council planning committee session.
The Scottish Government cancelled a hearing into SSE’S use of compulsory purchase powers to secure access to the land last month after the company struck a number of deals with landowners along the route.
Montrose councillor Bill Duff, SNP, said: “The council declared a climate emergency some time ago and this is green energy for a generation.
“It’s good news for the climate. It is good news for Scotland and Angus. And to be very parochial about it, it is good news for Montrose Port.”
The cable will be buried in three trenches, around five metres wide and two deep.
The route runs within 80 metres of Murroes Primary School.
Planning officials dismissed concerns over electromagnetic field emissions on school pupils.
They said levels were a “fraction” of those required to warrant safety concerns.
Independent Carnoustie councillor David Cheape welcomed the economic and environmental benefits but accused the renewables company of “taking the path of least resistance” by situating the cable under the golf course, rather than on the Ministry of Defence firing range to the immediate south.
Lis Royle, SSE Renewables consents team manager, told the committee the company had chosen the underground cable route after a “detailed site selection process.”