Energy company withdraw plans for Highland wind farm

The Scottish Government and SSE are appealing the courst's rejection of the turbine project. Picture: John Devlin

German company ABO Wind had been considering plans for a wind farm on land in Kilmorack and Strathglass, Highlands, for three years.

The farm in the two hamlets was set to include up to 25 turbines capable of generating around 75 megawatts of electricity.

But after installing an 80-metre high meteorological mast at the site to measure the wind, they were surprised to find consistently low speeds in the past year.

Low speeds recorded by the mast came as a surprise to the developers who thought that high speeds in nearby areas would have made the proposed site ideal.

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Kilmorack is only 15 miles away from Inverness which is consistently one of the windiest places in the UK.

In a letter to local residents, politicians and landowners, Duncan Scott, ABO Wind UK’s development project manager, confirmed they were not taking their plans any further.

He said: “The met mast has now been operational for twelve months and the wind data that have been collected have been analysed to build up a picture of the wind resource at the site.

“Unfortunately, the wind data analysis has identified that wind speeds are consistently too low for a commercially-viable development.

“Having looked at various wind data, such as from other surrounding wind farm sites and the national wind speed database NOABL, which suggested this could have been an ideal site for a wind farm, the low wind speeds consistently recorded were surprising.

“We are disappointed that we will not be proceeding with the project, which would have been a very significant development for ABO Wind in the Highlands.”