Tourist attraction could trace Shetland’s energy history from oil and gas to renewables
A TOURIST attraction tracing Shetland’s energy history could be opened as part of plans for an eight-turbine windfarm at Mossy Hill just outside Lerwick.
Statkraft is proposing to build a shared office/visitor centre, with an “interpretive area” for locals and visitors.
John Thouless, the company’s principal wind project manager, said this was likely to be “more of a tourist facility”.
He said the attraction could lead visitors through Shetland’s energy history, “from oil and gas to renewables”.
Thouless presented updates on the Mossy Hill wind farm to Monday night’s Lerwick Community Council (LCC) meeting.
LCC chairman Jim Anderson asked if there would be car parking available outside the facility, and was told that there would – but Statkraft did not want to offer too much parking.
“We don’t want to encourage it to be used as a motor home,” Thouless said.
“We want to get that balance right.”
Electric charging points, water refill stations and public toilets would also be available at the site.
Thouless gave members an update on the windfarm, which was reduced from 12 turbines down to eight earlier this year.
However the tip height of the remaining turbines was increased, from 145m to 155m, to give Mossy Hill an installed capacity of 36MW.
A second round of public exhibitions about the windfarm itself are planned for 22-23 January 2025, he told members.
A full planning application for the eight turbines and associated infrastructure will then likely be filed with Shetland Islands Council in February.
As well as that, a new 132kV substation is required to be built – which will connect into an existing SSEN cable.
He said a planning application for that was set to be filed with the council in the next week.
An online survey is also set to be launched, Thouless said, with Statkraft seeking views on some of its plans, including the office/tourist facility.
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Community councillor Andy Carter asked who the “main financial benefactors” were of the Statkraft project.
Thouless said Statkraft’s investors would be looking to for the project to make money, adding that was “the nature of business”.
He added they would be “looking to put money into the local community”, and that its community benefit fund was “locked in”.
Karen Fraser said it was “welcome” that the scale of the wind farm had been reduced from 12 turbines to eight, but said it would “still have quite an impact” on the landscape.
Members were shown a list of key dates for the Statkraft project, with the company estimating it could have a planning decision on both its substation and windfarm plans by summer 2025.
Construction on the substation, which is being proposed for land near to the junction from the A970 to Ladies Drive at the north exit of Lerwick, could start next summer.
Windfarm construction would likely only begin in summer 2026, with turbines arriving the following year.
The windfarm is expected to be fully up and running by autumn 2028.
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