News / Viking Energy land court hearing postponed
A HEARING before the Scottish Land Court on the use of crofting land for the Viking Energy wind farm project has been postponed after the UK government announced another round of consultation on whether or not there is a case to financially support the development of island based wind farm projects.
The land court was due to hear Viking’s applications and objections from a number of crofters in the South Nesting hall on Monday afternoon.
However, following the unexpected news earlier this month that island based wind farm projects could not participate in the next round of Contracts for Difference (CfD) bidding, VE has now successfully petitioned the land court to have the hearing delayed until the end of February.
Viking said the latest consultation created new uncertainties for the project as it constituted a change in the government’s stated position.
As such, the company needed to focus on reviewing its project and responding to the consultation by the deadline of 31 January 2017.
Because the Viking Energy wind farm is planned to be built on crofting land, the scheme has to be approved by the Scottish Land Court, which also has a role to ensure that crofters are not treated unfairly by the development and are recompensed appropriately.
A number of crofters using common grazing rights in the area designated for the 103 turbine development have objected to the plans.
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