Stornoway Community Council has decided to hold a special meeting to decide on its formal response to planning bid by SSEN to build a large electricity hub by Macaulay Farm outside Stornoway to link into the Minch subsea cable.
The energy hub forms a key part of the wider Western Isles connection project, which will connect island windfarms with the planned Minch underwater interconnector to allow renewable energy from Lewis and Harris be exported to mainland markets.
The meeting is to be held on Thursday 10 April at 7pm in the Newton Ward Community Rooms on Seaforth Road, Residents of the Stornoway Community Council area have the right to attend and ask questions.
The possible decisions which Comhairle nan Eilean Siar may take in relation to the planning application are to grant planning permission, to grant planning permission with conditions or to refuse permission.
The community council said it believes the project compromising of the convertor station and substation plus works associated works and operations in the vicinity including by Marybank is “genuinely unique.”
The community council said: “By enabling electricity transmission to the mainland at scale, the construction of massive windfarms, on and offshore of our island, becomes possible for the first time.
“The SSEN development has the potential to transform the Western Isles from a rural backwater to an economic powerhouse, of systemic importance to the Scottish and UK economies.
“Possibly the only comparable economic developments in Scottish postwar history might be the oil facilities on Orkney and Shetland in the 1970s.”
Stornoway Community Council says it “fully recognises” this massive project will cause significant disruption and pressure on housing and transport.
In addition, “despite the best endeavours of SSEN, the development cannot avoid causing significant adverse environmental impacts on our landscape and visual amenity.”
Community council secretary Mike Macleod said if the development : “This development will cost the best part of two billion pounds. If it goes ahead, it will change our lives forever. The members of Stornoway Community Council are willing to give up an evening to discuss it properly, and hope others will feel the same way.”
Stornoway Community Council special meeting over major energy infrastructure project on town outskirts
1 April 2025
