Orkney's Community Wind Farm Project - Hoy

This area was originally chosen as the largest area away from homes and designated sites with the potential for 100MW.  Initial scoping and bird surveys have shown that the site could more realistically offer ~28MW.

The current proposal is to erect six turbines compared to the 30 presented in the original plans. The turbines have also been made taller (149.9m to tip height), moved further away from local homes and have been focused towards the north of the site. The plans were amended following consideration of the site’s proximity to the national scenic area and residential properties, bird sensitivities and the location of communication masts in the area.

The site the Council has been looking at lies at and to the south of Wee Fea, the hill behind Lyness which contains underground wartime oil tanks.

Key facts:

• The site lies on the south-east of the island of Hoy and comprises moorland with coastal pastures in the east and south. Habitats of a similar nature to the site are present north of the site, with glaciated hill and valleys in a small section in the northwest of the island.
• There are several small burns, namely the Burn of Ore, which flows east-west through the site, as well as the Burn of Longigill flowing north-south in the north-central site area. There are other small unnamed watercourses on site as shown on OS mapping and observed from site visits

Pre-application consultation for the project was carried out in May and June 2020, with a planning application submitted in October 2020.  That planning application was subsequently called in by the Scottish Government on our request and we received planning permission in December 2021.

Further details, including the display materials from our consultation events, are available from the 'More pages in this section' section of this web page.