Wind farm and over-head power line project applications: EIR release

Information requested

The following information for the time period of 1 January 2009 to the present day:

1) How many applications for windfarms have been received?

2) How many applications for over-head power line projects, including pylons, wooden pole lines, and substations etc - have been received?

3) How many applications for windfarms by SSE have been received?

4) How many applications for over-head power line projects, including pylons, wooden pole lines, substations etc – by SSE have been received?

For all four strands of your request, you also asked:

a) How many of these were recommended for refusal by the local authority?

b) What were the reasons for refusal?

c) How many of the refusals were overturned by the Scottish Government and what were the reasons for it?

Response

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Response to your request

The answers to your questions are as follows:

To answer your question, we used application data held within the energyconsents.scot online portal.

This data was pulled on 07 February 2024, for the period in question (2009 onwards):

1) 258 ‘Wind Farm’ ‘Development’ applications including those applications seeking to vary existing consents are held in the online portal. The status of these applications can be broken down as follows:

Application	62
Consented	94
Referred to DPEA	8
Refused	31
Variation	29
Withdrawn	34

2) 762 ‘Overhead Power Line’ ‘Development’ applications, including those applications seeking to vary existing consents, are held in the online portal. The status of these applications can be broken down as follows:

Application	148
Consented	563
Referred to DPEA	6
Refused	1
Variation	1
Withdrawn	43

3) 7 ‘Wind Farm’ ‘Development’ applications, including those applications seeking to vary existing consents, are held in the online portal by the following applicant:

• SSE Generation Limited

The status of these wind farm applications can be broken down as follows:

Consented	3
Refused	1
Variation	1
Withdrawn	2

4) 541 ‘Overhead Power Line’ ‘Development’ applications are held in the online portal by the following applicants:

• Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks
• Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution PLC
• Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission Plc

The status of these over-head power line project applications can be broken down as follows:

Application	106
Consented	395
Draft	11
Referred to DPEA	1
Withdrawn	28

With reference to the additional queries raised in a, b and c:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. Under the terms of the exception at regulation 10(4)(a) of the EIRs (information not held), the Scottish Government is not required to provide information which it does not have. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested because there is no business need to maintain a database of the information you have requested.

This exception is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exception. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exception. While we recognise that there may be some public interest in information about applications recommended for refusal by public local authorities, clearly we cannot provide information which we do not hold.

Please note that Local Planning Authorities (LPA) do not make any decisions regarding an application. Instead, they provide a view as statutory consultees, which is then taken into consideration by Scottish Ministers when making the final determination decision. As LPAs do not make decisions regarding an application, there are no circumstances in which they can be overturned.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.