Gordonbush

*Based on household consumption of 3,300kWh a year.

Gordonbush wind farm
SSE has started initial construction work on its 35 turbine wind farm at Gordonbush near Brora in Sutherland. We submitted the initial planning application for an 87.5MW wind farm in June 2003, with Section 36 consent being granted in April 2008. The original intention was to use 2.5MW turbines, however, due to changes in turbine availability, we will now be using 2.05MW turbines, creating a 71.75MW site.

SSE explored an alternative access route to Gordonbush wind farm, via Kilbraur wind farm, in response to concerns raised by the local community about the effects of construction traffic passing through the villages of Golspie and Brora. Extensive work was undertaken during 2008 and 2009 to understand the feasibility of this route, including further environmental studies, technical and engineering studies for the design of the bridge required to cross the River Brora, and negotiations with third parties regarding access.

As work progressed, it became apparent that the time required to construct the bridge, finalise land negotiations and carry out other improvements to the Kilbraur route would take much longer than had been originally hoped and could not be delivered in time to meet the grid connection date. The additional costs of delivering this alternative route were also significantly higher than estimated, and in January this year, SSE announced the decision to use the original consented access route through Strathbrora.

SSE is aware of the concerns within the local area regarding traffic passing along the A9 and will work closely with the community during the construction phase of the project to ensure that traffic is managed in a way that causes minimum disruption and addresses concerns, where possible. Regular community liaison meetings will be held during the construction phase to keep the community updated. These meetings will be open to the public and will provide the opportunity for people to meet the project team, receive an update on progress, and ask any questions that they may have.

A regular newsletter is also available locally and on this web-page.

The development is expected to be commissioned during 2011.

Please note the next Gordonbush Community Liaison meeting scheduled for Wednesday 18 August has been cancelled.

More information

 Gordonbush Newsletter - Issue 1 (May 2010) (81 KB)
 Gordonbush Newsletter - Issue 2 (September 2010) (69 KB)

Project enquiries:
Procurement enquiries
Our communications team is unable to respond to speculative procurement enquiries. If you are interested in supplying goods and services for this project, please refer to our FAQ.

Media enquiries should be directed to:
Ruth Liddicoat at SSE on +44 (0)845 0760 530

General enquiries can be sent to:
Ruth Liddicoat
Corporate Affairs
SSE | Inveralmond House 200 Dunkeld Road Perth PH1 3AQ UK

T: +44 (0)7767 852826
E: ruth.liddicoat@sse.com