Scottish Ministers, Developers Fight for Firths of Forth and Tay Offshore Wind Farms

The Scottish Ministers have lodged an appeal against the Scottish Court of Session’s decision in favour of the petition filed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) to review the consent by the Scottish Ministers for four offshore wind farms in the Firths of Forth and Tay, Mainstream Renewable Power, the developer of the 450MW Neart na Gaoithe wind farm, said.

In addition, Mainstream Renewable Power lodged a separate appeal against the Court of Session’s decision to uphold RSPB’s appeal on Monday, 8 August.

Inch Cape Offshore Limited, the developer of the 784MW Inch Cape project, has also filed an appeal against the decision.

In January 2015, RSPB submitted a legal challenge of the decisions by Scottish Ministers to grant consent for Inch Cape, Neart na Gaoithe, and Seagreen Alpha and Bravo offshore wind farms as the projects totalling 2,284MW in capacity ”pose too great a risk to the many thousands of resident and migratory seabirds,” the organisation said.

After a judicial review of the Scottish Ministers’ approval, the court ordered that the Scottish Ministers will have to reconsider the decisions to approve the four wind farms in July 2016.

Offshore WIND Staff