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Asked by:
Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged:
7 March 2025
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Current status:
Answered by Gillian Martin on 14 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what arrangements Crown Estate Scotland has in place with private sector providers for wind, hydro and solar electricity generation on land in its ownership or management; what the current capacity in megawatts is of any generation installed; what the most recently recorded annual income was for Crown Estate Scotland from any such arrangements, and when each of the arrangements will come to an end.
Crown Estate Scotland has the following arrangements in place with private sector providers for wind and solar electricity generation on land in its ownership or management:
- One commercial lease agreement with a tenant farmer, which involved the installation of a 50KW solar PV scheme, installed on a 50/50 basis under a FIT scheme a number of years ago. This project resulted in the payment of £9,300 to Crown Estate Scotland in 2023-24 and has 16 years to run.
- Three onshore wind electricity generation projects in the planning stages that are yet to be consented as follows:
- Wind farm in planning phase in Moffat with a view to 7 turbines on two tenanted farms with potential capacity of 50.4MW.
- Access rights over CES ground and tenanted farms to facilitate potential 16 turbines (sited elsewhere) in Moray with potential capacity of 105.6MW. The scheme is still in planning phase.
- Access rights over CES ground and tenanted farms to facilitate 10 turbines (sited elsewhere) with potential wind farm capacity of 72MW in Moray. The scheme is still in planning stages.
There are currently no operational onshore wind farms with a lease from Crown Estate Scotland. Also, Crown Estate Scotland does not manage any onshore leases for hydropower projects.