The major public consultation exercise into £24 million Beatrice Wind Farm Demonstrator Project proposed for the Moray Firth reaches Inverness tomorrow as the ninth leg of a 14-date tour of coastal venues in the Highlands, Morayshire and Aberdeenshire.
Talisman Energy (U.K.) Limited and its co-venturer Scottish and Southern Electricity, have organised the roadshow as the next step in an extensive consultation programme into the potential environmental, socio-economic and visual impacts of the project. The findings from these consultations will form an important part of the formal environmental assessment that has to be completed in order to secure development consent for the demonstrator.
“Members of the public, special interest and community groups who wish to comment on the project, hear more about it or raise any concerns are invited to come along and meet with representatives from the project team,” commented Jan Rusin, Talisman’s Environment Manager.
“This is a major project for the north of Scotland and we are meeting with as many people as possible. We are very firmly committed to working in partnership with interest groups in order to obtain the consent we need and there has been as high level of public interest in the eight meetings we have held so far.”
The Demonstrator Project proposes the installation of two 5-MW wind turbines located on the seabed linked by subsea cable to the nearby Beatrice platform. Power generated by the turbines would be used to offset electricity currently imported to Beatrice from the national grid.
The Demonstrator Project would be used to examine the feasibility and benefits of creating commercial offshore deepwater wind farms that currently require significant technological advances to be commercially viable. The Project is made possible by £3 million in funding from each of the Scottish Executive and the UK Department of Trade and Industry. The European commission is contributing £4 million and Talisman and SSE will each contribute over £7 million.
The roadshow will be visiting Inverness (Station Hotel, 23 August); Nairn (Windsor Hotel, 24 August); Burghead (Commercial Hotel, 25 August); Buckie (Marine Hotel, 29 August); Banff (Banff Springs Hotel, 30 August) and Fraserburgh (Saltoun Hotel, 31 August). Meetings have already taken place in Wick, Lybster, Helmsdale, Brora, Golspie, Dornoch, Tain and in Cromarty (today).
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