Achany Wind Farm

Scottish & Southern Energy PLC 17 December 2007 SCOTTISH AND SOUTHERN ENERGY PLC CONSENT SECURED FOR ACHANY WIND FARM Scottish and Southern Energy plc ('SSE') has been granted planning permission to develop a 40MW (megawatt) wind farm at Achany in Sutherland. The decision follows a Public Inquiry into the development, which was concluded in August 2007 - the original planning application was made in October 2005. The wind farm will have 23 turbines and construction work is expected to begin next year, with the wind farm scheduled to be commissioned in 2010. Its development will require the investment of around £55m. When Achany is commissioned, SSE will have 275MW of installed wind farm capacity. This includes the Drumderg and Toddleburn wind farms, which are expected to be commissioned in 2008 and 2009 respectively. It will be SSE's seventh wind farm. In addition to Achany, SSE is currently seeking to secure consent for seven other wind farms, with a total capacity of over 650MW, which are at various stages in the formal planning process. Ian Marchant, Chief Executive of SSE, said: 'I am pleased that the Achany wind farm has finally received consent, and we will work to ensure that the construction work at the site is carried out efficiently and professionally. We will seek to work in partnership with the local community throughout the construction period. 'In the last 15 months, we have had three successes in the wind farm planning process. Nevertheless, it remains much too time-consuming and unpredictable to be an effective means of realising Scotland's and the UK's renewable energy requirements.' This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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