Scottish Ministers have granted consent for Vattenfall’s Ourack wind farm in the Scottish Highlands.

Ourack Wind Farm project sits in the Drynachan, Lochindorb, and Dava Moors special landscape area (SLA) just north of the Cairngorms National Park. Although there was a lot of promise for renewable electricity, the project also had to be conscious of natural landscape impacts. Vattenfall employed Stantec to manage the process, provide landscape recovery and reduce impacts on peatland habitats, watercourses, deep peat, topography, residential amenity, and archaeological interests.

The Ourack wind farm will consist of 17 wind turbines of 180m height-to-tip and have a capacity of around 100MW, with consent for 50MW of battery storage. Construction expected to start in 2028. 

The farm is a smaller version of the first concept which would have had 50 turbines, the reduction minimising the impact on Cairngorms National Park.

Alison Daugherty, Vattenfall’s project manager for Ourack, said: “The decision to grant consent follows a lengthy development process, during which we have worked to incorporate feedback from the local community and stakeholders. We will now work with stakeholders, including residents and local businesses, to ensure that the proposal is constructed as sensitively as possible while offering opportunities to Highland businesses.”

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