Scottish townships to compete in CfD auction

Four townships striving to develop community-owned wind farms in Stornoway, Scotland plan to bid in the UK government's contract for difference (CfD) auction in May next year.

Sandwick North Street, Sandwick East Street, Melbost & Branahuie and Aignish will be competing in the remote island wind pot in the CfD auction. They want to install 21 turbines, or 105 MW of capacity, spread across four projects, ranging from 5 MW to 50 MW in size.

The townships said they will be competing in the auction with bigger projects planned for the Isle of Lewis such as Lewis Wind Power (LWP)'s Stornoway and Uisenis wind farms and Forsa Energy's Tolsta.

In fact, the locations of the townships' turbines match the approved locations for 21 of the 36 turbines for the Stornoway wind farm of LWP, a partnership between France’s EDF (EPA:EDF) and Wood Group. The townships added that it is unclear how LWP intends to proceed in the auction as the company has just submitted a scoping document, according to which it is revising the Stornoway scheme to include 33 bigger turbines at locations that are different from those approved.

"We’re positive we’ll meet the deadline because we’ve followed all the processes up until now and we’re optimistic because there is existing planning consent for these areas," said Sandwick North Street representative Rhoda Mackenzie.

According to Mackenzie, if the townships get control of the turbines, they will be able to put more than GBP 5 million (USD 6.6 m/EUR 5.6m) a year into the Western Isles economy, compared to about GBP 525,000 from EDF.

"Why should we be fighting for an interconnector if it’s going to be nothing but a power lead for multinationals like EDF and Forsa?" Mackenzie said.

The townships announced their plans to participate in the CfD auction a week after the UK government confirmed that the next CfD round will be held by May 2019, which the townships said is slightly later than had been anticipated. They expect to submit applications for planning consent to Comhairle nan Eilean Siar by October and to received a decision in time to prepare their bids for the auction in May next year.

(GBP 1 = USD 1.313/EUR 1.123)

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