Hoprigshiels Community Wind Farm

BHA together with our partners Community Energy Scotland (CES) a charity providing advice and support to communities throughout Scotland wishing to benefit from renewable energy, propose to develop a three turbine community wind farm at Hoprigshiels Farm, near Cockburnspath, Berwickshire. Should planning consent be awarded, this will be the first wind farm to have been developed by a Housing Association anywhere in the UK and will be unique in the Borders in that all profits will be applied for community or charitable benefit. There will be no private shareholders.

Following consultation we have amended our initial planning application, details of which can be found in the supplementary environmental information summarised in the accompanying letter below.

Amendment to Planning Application

Acrobat PDF icon Supplementary Environmental Information Covering Letter (PDF)

Acrobat PDF icon Supplementary Environmental Information (PDF, File size: 86.3Mbytes)

Each turbine will now have a hub height of 68.5 metres and a height to blade tip of 115 metres, the wind farm generating in the region of 19Gwh of electricity a year, equivalent to that used by over 4000 households.

Given the constraints on public expenditure at a time when demand for affordable rented housing has never been higher, the wind farm will provide a significant and sustainable revenue stream for the Housing Association and valuable income to Community Energy Scotland in support of their work with communities the length and breadth of Scotland.

Additionally a local community fund will be established to support community projects within the vicinity of the wind farm, with contributions set at twice the amount that one would typically expect from a commercial wind farm of the same scale.