The long running battle to gain support for the proposed Lewis Wind Farm has reached another critical point. The project is planned for Barvas Moor on the Scottish Isle of Lewis and consists of an installed capacity of 630MW.

Lewis Wind Power is seeking approval to construct the 176 wind turbine farm from the Scottish Executive. However there have been thousands of letters of objection from local citizens and concerned parties on environmental grounds. There is also concerns about the impact of large scale development on the area.

After initial signals that the government would not be backing the project there have been some more promising signals from the Scottish Energy minister, Jim Mather who has indicated that he would be in favour of approving the application, saying “‘There must be renewable energy development across the Isles if we are to ensure that the opportunities and benefits of a renewables revolution can be shared fairly across Scotland.”

So far the size of the proposed wind farm has been shrinking in order to gain the approval it needs. The original proposal was for a 234 wind turbine farm to be constructed. This was then trimmed by 53 wind turbines to drop the size of the wind farm back to 181 wind turbines. As recently as February 2008 the number was trimmed again by another 5 wind turbines in order to gain the approval of Comhairle nan Eilean Star (Western Isles Council) who said they would recommend that the Scottish Ministers approve the development subject to the deletion of those 5 turbines.

A decision is expected from the Scottish government in the next couple of weeks.

Should construction be approved, Lewis Wind Power expects to have the project completed by 2010.