Council / Statkraft substation plans to go before full council
THE FULL council will have the final say on plans for a contentious substation on the outskirts of Lerwick.
Shetland Islands Council’s planning committee recommended the 1.7 hectare development – which includes a 132kV substation – be approved at its meeting on Wednesday.
Norwegian energy giant Statkraft is behind the proposal, which also includes transformer equipment and electrical switchgear for SSEN Transmission.
The building would allow the proposed eight-turbine Mossy Hill wind farm to connect to the new underground cable line between Kergord and Gremista.
A string of objections had been lodged against the plans, with visual impact, concern for peatland and the risk of contamination to Lerwick’s drinking water among the primary concerns.
One pointed to the Sandy Loch reservoir, which is Lerwick’s main water source, and said it could be polluted by turbines less than 2km away.
Planning officer Jack Wiseman said the building’s visual impact on the landscape would be “minor to moderate”.
And while he admitted peatland would be impacted by the development, he said the impacts would be “suitably mitigated” by Statkraft’s plans for the project.
Objector Adrian Brockless however, speaking against the plans at Wednesday’s meeting, said that Shetland “deserves better” than the substation development.
The Statkraft project “destroys carbon rich peatland” and would have a “harmful” visual impact on the landscape, he said.
And while it had been found that there was a “very low” risk of Lerwick’s drinking water being affected, he said: “Very low is not no risk”.
He said it was “not a borderline case”, and should be thrown out by the council.
However Statkraft project manager John Thouless said his company was exploring measures such as planting trees around the site to mitigate the visual impact.
Statkraft was the “most ethical and environmental company” he had been involved with, he claimed.
And he said planning conditions would be in place to ensure watercourses were not affected by the development.
North Isles councillor Robert Thomson pointed out that the planning committee had not actually been asked to approve the plans, but just to move them forward for the full council to consider, which he proposed they did.
His motion was seconded by councillor Cecil Smith.
Norwegian energy giant Statkraft, which is state-owned, would connect the substation to its proposed Mossy Hill wind farm – which could see eight 155m turbines built just outside Lerwick.
The substation infrastructure would be located on land in between the Staney Hill quarry and the junction for the A970 road and Ladies Drive.
Statkraft has previously estimated it could have a planning decision on both its substation and wind farm plans by summer 2025.
Construction on the substation could start in the summer, with wind farm construction likely only beginning in summer 2026 and turbines arriving the following year.
The wind farm is expected to be fully up and running by autumn 2028.
The substation application will now go before the full council on 10 June.
Statkraft already has planning consent for 12 turbines in the Mossy Hill development but last year the company revealed it had revised the development to eight turbines, which are larger in height.
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