Wind turbines will fund 500 new homes in Scotland

Scotland’s Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy, Paul Wheelhouse, has officially launched the
“Fishermen Three”
wind farm that will fund the building of new homes.

The three-turbine project, thought to be the first in the country, is hoped to generate revenue of £20 million over the next 25 years.  The revenue will be sufficient to enable Berwickshire Housing Association to build 500 new homes.

The project at Hoprigshiels near Cockburnspath should also produce the energy needed to power around 5,900 households.

Planning permission for the scheme was originally refused on landscape impact and amenity grounds, but was eventually granted in 2012.

The scheme will be jointly developed with Community Energy Scotland, who intend to use their income from the project to support the development of new renewable energy projects by community groups.

BHA chief executive, Helen Forsyth, said: ” BHA realised that we had to be innovative in order to solve the dilemma of how to keep building new homes for social rental, which are so badly needed in this area, at a time when funding for new housing through traditional channels was in decline. The wind farm will provide BHA with a reliable, predictable, low maintenance source of income that will allow us to build a steady stream of new affordable homes at a time when services are all too often being cut.”

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