Campaigners fears over St Fergus solar farm bird deaths
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Nature campaigners fear Scotland’s largest solar farm at St Fergus could lure birds to their death.
Irish firm Elgin Energy is hoping to construct the new facility on a 260-acre site near the Aberdeenshire coast – just south of Strathbeg Nature Reserve.
The 50 megawatt development would be one of the biggest solar projects in the UK if it gets the go-ahead.
The major project will ultimately be determined by the Scottish Government, but Aberdeenshire councillors will this week decide their response.
And officers have recommended that members raise no objections.
But NatureScot has raised concerns that the location, close to the RSPB’s Loch of Strathbeg nature reserve, could spell disaster for birds.
They say the construction phase could “causing disturbance to foraging geese and swans”, with that precious habitat “permanently lost” as a result.
The nature agency also fears birds could mistake the shimmering sea of panels for a body of water, plummeting into the site at risk of injury or death.
It said: “The presence of solar panels represents a collision risk to waterfowl which may mistake them for water bodies and attempt to land on them.
“This could result in injury or death to individual birds.”
Andrew West and his family have lived next to the proposed site since 2018 and said the new development would “almost surround” their home.
He said: “This is not an industrial location, it is beautiful coastline filled with abundance of wildlife including migration geese which we have witnessed every year in these exact fields.
“It seems highly unfair to approve this proposal in its current form.
“Its sheer scale is completely out of balance with the area.”
The St Fergus solar farm could offset more than 720,000 tonnes of CO2 over 40 years.
It would also create enough energy to power 15,000 homes and 20,000 electric vehicles per year.
The site is expected to have solar panels, 10 battery storage units and 50 inverter substations.
Once it stops operating all of the equipment would be removed and the site would be returned to its current state.
The application will be considered by Aberdeenshire Council’s infrastructure services committee on Wednesday.
The Kirkton Solar Farm development is being considered by the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit.
Comments made by the committee will form the local authority’s response to the proposal.
The application previously went before the council’s Buchan area committee in April.
Local members welcomed the proposal but raised some concerns about the impact it would have on the surrounding roads and nearby cemetery.
Paul McKernan of RPS Group said the development would make a “significant contribution” to Scotland’s net zero carbon 2045 targets.
