Vattenfall has announced details of its November consultation events for the proposed 65-turbine Glenmarkie Wind Farm. These events will offer local communities the chance to meet the project team, learn more about the wind farm’s design, and share their views. Vattenfall is keen to engage early with residents to help shape the proposal and explore its significant potential for community benefit and local wealth-building.
Carefully planned to reach a wide range of communities, the events will provide an opportunity to ask questions, raise concerns, and discuss how the development could deliver meaningful and lasting benefits for the area.
Based on the early proposed 65-turbine layout, the 481MW scheme could provide a community benefit fund of up to £2.4 million each year to the local area and £72 million over the project’s 30-year operational lifetime, deliver up to £4.1 million in annual business rates, and offset the equivalent of up to 350,000 tonnes of CO2 each year1.
Simon Lejeune, Vattenfall’s Lead Project Development Manager for Glenmarkie, explained, “The project is in the very initial stages of design, so we’re keen to engage with the community as early as possible to ensure that their consultation feedback has the most potential to influence the design and delivery of the scheme. We are sensitive to the fact that there are likely to be a mix of views locally, and that large scale projects like this, at an early stage of design, can often raise a mix of views. So, we will listen carefully to people’s feedback and build a clear picture of the areas we need to focus on from a community perspective.
“We’re particularly aware that there are likely to be concerns about construction traffic associated with the Glenmarkie proposal, amongst other considerations. We wish to discuss this in more detail with the community at the exhibitions and explore potential commitments that we can make to help minimise any potential disruption and impact on the local roads.”
Lucy Blake, Vattenfall’s Project Manager for Glenmarkie Wind Farm [pictured], added, “In addition to designing our projects sensitively from a community perspective, we’re committed to minimising any environmental impacts and exploring opportunities for habitat enhancements.
“Vattenfall is passionate about protecting peatland and we are involved in a major peatland restoration project covering 1,500 hectares at our Pen y Cymoedd Wind Farm in Wales. We believe there is potential for a unique peatland restoration project at Glenmarkie as it is located in an area of heavily eroded moorland with extensive areas of eroding peat pans, so we’re keen to explore this opportunity further as the project progresses.“
The public exhibition events have been advertised in local newspapers and letters issued to over 2,000 local households to help raise further awareness of the events.
- Tuesday 11 November at Laggan Hall, PH20 1AH from 3pm – 6pm
- Wednesday 12 November at:
- Glenmoriston Millenium Hall, IV63 7YA from 10am – 1pm
- The Wildside Centre, IV2 6UN from 3pm – 7pm
- Thursday 13 November at:
- Farr Community Hall, IV2 6AX from 10am – 2pm
- The Strathdearn Hub, IV13 7YN from 4pm – 7pm
The exhibition information, including ‘feedback forms’, will also be available to view online from the project website at www.vattenfall.co.uk/our-projects/glenmarkie from Tuesday 11th November. The closing date for submitting comments to Vattenfall at this stage in the design process is Friday 12th December 2025. There will be another opportunity to comment once the design has been developed further and before it is submitted into planning.