We Want to Engage With the Whole Island

The island-based director of the company seeking to build a wind farm off the coast of Maughold wants to answer as many questions and concerns as possible.

John Galloway was speaking to Gef ahead of a series of roadshow events later this month.

Orsted plans to build wind turbines off the east coast, with at least a majority of the power going to the UK and the island benefitting from receiving a percentage of the revenue.

Ahead of a planning application going in, likely to be in early 2025, John said the company is keen to engage with as much of the island as possible.

He said: ‘There’s going to be a visual impact, there’s no doubt, we can see already the operational projects. So those projects that you see out there, off the coast now are Oersted operated projects, we’ve got our base in Barrow that functions as the base for the operation of those and the reality is we’re moving these much closer.

‘So they’re going to come and say the 12 nautical mile limit around the island and that means that they will be within much more viewing distance of the east coast of the island.

‘Our hope is that we will be able to get some concerns and some feel from the various community events that we’re having in November, we will then go away to the design board, come up with some of the expected layouts and how we could mitigate some of those impacts wherever the majority are.

‘Then when we come out to each major consultation next year, we’ll have much more in terms of design and layout and visualisations to show people what the what the view could be like in the future.’

The events are being held around the island, details below and John said that Orsted wants to see as many people as possible so the company can see what particular concerns and issues it may need to address.

Engagement

Orsted is running engagement events for people to ask questions and raises concerns about the Mooir Vannin Offshore Wind Farm which are:

They all run from 2.30pm to 7pm and are on a ‘drop in’ basis, so there’s no need to register in advance.

• Monday November 20: Laxey – The Laxey Glen Pavilion, The Laxey Glen
• Tuesday November 21: Ramsey – Milntown House, Lezayre Road,
• Wednesday November 22: Peel – Kelvin Dawson Community Hub, Peel Football Club, Douglas Road
• Thursday November 23: Port Erin – Erin Arts Centre, Victoria Square
• Saturday November 24: Douglas – Villa Marina, Promenade Suite