Quantans Hill Wind Farm

Improving biodiversity, creating opportunities and delivering community benefits in Dumfries and Galloway

Offering significant biodiversity improvements, local economic opportunities and community benefits, Quantans Hill Wind Farm is a proposed onshore renewables project north east of Carsphairn.

With 14 turbines, battery storage and a 90MW capacity, this Vattenfall investment also represents a substantial increase to Dumfries and Galloway’s home-grown green energy capacity, helping take Scotland one step closer to achieving – and exceeding – its Net Zero goals.

Visit the Virtual Exhibition to find out more about the proposals or see the full proposal documents by following this link to the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit portal here. You can also read our latest newsletter here.

Why Quantans Hill Wind Farm?

Vattenfall’s proposals for Quantans Hill Wind Farm outline the potential for:

• 90MW capacity for renewable energy generation – equivalent of saving 4million tonnes of CO2 over the lifetime of the project.
• Up to 50MW battery storage, supporting the energy transition, grid resilience, and security of supply.
• Deploying the latest turbine technology to grow Scotland’s renewable energy capacity, helping address the climate emergency with onshore wind - now one of the cheapest (and potentially speediest) ways to generate significant volumes new electricity.
• Local economic jobs and business opportunities worth an estimated £7million to the local economy, part of a wider investment by Vattenfall across south-west Scotland.
• Community benefits package worth up to c£16million to local communities.
• Extensive investment in habitat enhancement and protection across site – including new broadleaf planting, heathland restoration and peat restoration.
• Potential regional biodiversity programme maintained throughout the project’s lifetime.
• Creating a new asset for outdoors recreation – 15km of signposted accessible hill tracks accessible from Carsphairn, information boards and protection of sites of historic interest.
• Estimated £600,000 annual input to local tax revenues.
• Supporting diversification of agricultural sector and protection of non-forested biodiverse-enhanced heathland and peatland.

Help make it happen

If you are concerned about the climate emergency and would like to see the Carsphairn area and Dumfries and Galloway reap the economic, community and biodiversity benefits offered by Quantans Hill Wind Farm, please participate in the consultation here.

Designing the best, biodiverse and beneficial wind farm we can

Unlike many other types of development, wind farms are subject to highly stringent planning regulations, and at Vattenfall we invest considerable time, resources and care to design the best wind farms we can.

Local feedback has been a crucial factor in the design of Quantans Hill, helping us strike a balance between the need for a fossil fuel free future and the aspirations of local communities. Detailed environmental studies have also been undertaken on, for example, birds, wildlife, hydrology, habitats, noise, visual impact, archaeology, landscape, transport and aviation. All of this has helped us refine the proposal:

• reducing turbines from 21 to 14
• lowering the maximum tip height from 250m to 200m
• removing and repositioning turbines to better protect water, deep peat, heritage and natural heritage whilst mitigating visual and noise cumulative impact
• integrated additional public access features

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Evolution of the site design

View a short video animation showing the evolution of the site design.

Built in biodiversity

Quantans Hill Wind Farm also represents an exciting opportunity to significantly enhance biodiversity.

The building of the wind farm would see the creation of extensive habitat management enhancements maintained and cared for throughout its lifetime, delivering a biodiversity Net Gain. Historic heathland and peatlands would be restored, and new planting of native broadleaf trees are amongst the many measures included in the proposals.

Beyond the site boundary, there are also opportunities for regional habitat enhancements.

Pathways and preservation

A new network of 15km of accessible tracks will be created and maintained for the wind farm. We propose to add information boards to encourage visitors to explore the biodiverse, improved habitat and cultural heritage on site. Plus, a proposal to create a footpath towards the village will make it easier to walk from the Carsphairn, and invite explorers to a part of the site where, some distance beyond any turbines, they can discover the crash site of a WW2 aircraft which played an important role in the development of radar and thus in turn the outcome of the conflict.

Maximising local opportunities and community benefits

Our South Kyle Wind Farm project, currently under construction north of Carsphairn, demonstrates how Vattenfall works with local communities to maximise opportunities.

We can build on this with Quantans Hill, developing further local networks to support local jobs and businesses, sharing knowledge and supporting the next generation find their green careers.

Vattenfall is also committed to delivering significant community benefits with Quantans Hill Wind Farm. We’re exploring how the funding created by the wind farm could support local communities achieve their goals, looking at big ideas and innovation to deliver a bespoke package. To this end, we commissioned an independent Community Development Strategy, a starting point in highlighting what could be achieved with funding from Quantans Hill Wind Farm.

What’s next?

Our South Kyle Wind Farm project, currently under construction north of Carsphairn, demonstrates how Vattenfall works with local communities to maximise opportunities.

We can build on this with Quantans Hill, developing further local networks to support local jobs and businesses, sharing knowledge and supporting the next generation find their green careers.

Proposals for Quantans Hill Wind Farm are currently under consideration with the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit. The public consultation period concludes at the end of March 2023 . Following this, Dumfries and Galloway Council will have additional time to consider their response, before the Government makes it decision. 

If consented, construction of Quantans Hill Wind Farm could commence as early as 2025, bringing considerable construction project work and supply opportunities for around 2 years, with renewable energy potentially generated from 2027.

Thereafter, the benefits arising from community funding, homegrown renewable generation, and biodiversity enhancements would be reaped for decades to come.

Get in touch

If you have any questions about the Quantans Hill Wind Farm Proposal please get in touch: quantanshill.windfarm@vattenfall.com