Planning applications and appeals submitted by SSE for renewable energy projects: EIR release

Information requested

Is the Scottish Government, using the powers it holds with regards to Section 36 and 37 planning applications and appeals, has ever refused any applications submitted by SSE, including SSE Renewables and its other subsidiaries.

As the information you have requested is 'environmental information' for the purposes of the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs), we are required to deal with your request under those Regulations. We are applying the exemption at section 39(2) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), so that we do not also have to deal with your request under FOISA.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption, because there is no public interest in dealing with the same request under two different regimes. This is essentially a technical point and has no material effect on the outcome of your request.

Response

The answer to your question is the Scottish Government has determined one refusal from SSE and the application was submitted by SSE Generation Limited. This was for a Section 36 application dated 9 July 2012 being a wind farm generating station and determination date of 17 November 2015. The project name was Glencassley and the Energy Consents Unit reference number is ECU00005263. Case information including the decision letter can be located within the Scottish Government Energy Consents Unit Portal website at www.energyconsents.scot or by clicking the following link Scottish Government - Energy Consents Unit - Application Details.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.