Campaign position
Save the Deveron Valley is not anti-renewables and not anti-grid. We are pro-community, pro-nature and pro joined-up assessment.
We ask for cumulative assessment, clear information and honest consultation, protection for wildlife, habitat and rivers, independent road-safety assessment and meaningful participation.
We will not turn the Strathbogie Hub into a Site 14 versus Site 6 campaign or ask for harm to be moved from one community or farming family to another.
Strathbogie Hub
Project assessmentTwo sites under consideration
SSEN's May information booklet identifies Cruchie (Site 6) and Rivestone (Site 14) as the two shortlisted sites. SSEN's current Shetland 2 page says the Hub is still in the final stages of site selection and that a preferred site is not yet known.
Save the Deveron Valley met SSEN on 7 September. Campaign follow-up work on consultation, cumulative assessment, roads, ecology, agriculture and related infrastructure is being finalised. Meeting recollections will not be presented as established SSEN positions unless supported by the record.
Shetland HVDC Link 2
Project assessmentConsultation open
Boyne Bay and Boyndie Bay remain landfall options after Sandend was discounted. SSEN says the mainland underground-cable route will be up to approximately 30 km, depending on the final endpoints and route.
The preferred Aberdeenshire landfall, mainland cable route and preferred Strathbogie Hub site remain in development. This should not be simplified into a claim that one element exists only because of another.
Beauly–Blackhillock–New Deer–Peterhead overhead line
DPEA inquiryTRL-270-2 / ECU00005165
The applicant's September Additional Information public notice describes approximately 186 km of new main 400 kV OHL plus approximately 14.7 km of crossing, temporary-diversion and permanent-realignment works. The same notice gives a total of approximately 200.7 km of new OHL infrastructure. Those figures describe different scopes and are not competing route-length claims.
Current scrutiny includes Fanellan traffic and Black Bridge procedure, cumulative construction traffic, agricultural operations, community participation and Raeshaw/workers accommodation. Procedural questions are not findings against SSEN.
Netherton tie-in
ConsultationECU00006167
The live case concerns a 400 kV OHL connection to New Deer and Peterhead with an approximate length of 5.3 km. SSEN has submitted August addenda covering ecology, protected species and mitigation.
SSEN's Ecology Addendum reports DNA-confirmed water-vole presence, new checks and mitigation. It predicts no significant effects to water vole with the stated embedded and additional mitigation. Those are the applicant's evidence and conclusion; the campaign question is whether the assessment and safeguards are adequate.
Aultmore Wind Farm Redesign
ApplicationECU00003365
Vattenfall's current project page and the ECU case describe a proposal for up to 16 turbines, each up to 200 m, with up to 105.6 MW generating capacity and a BESS of up to 50 MW.
Additional Information includes an Indicative Grid Route Appraisal. That underlying appraisal has not yet completed campaign audit, so no electrical connection to Strathbogie or the Beauly–Peterhead line should be asserted without evidence.
Glen Earrach pumped storage hydro
ApplicationAdditional Information audit pending
The ECU case describes a pumped-storage hydro scheme of up to 2,000 MW and 34,000 MWh. A substantive 2026 Additional Information package is on the campaign review list but has not yet been audited.
Until that work is complete, the website should not summarise the new package as though its contents or effects have been established.
Keith and Cairnie battery-storage developments
Research in progressOctober consultations expected
This is a new research strand involving more than one matter. One lead concerns a proposed Keith Greener Grid Park extension / long-duration energy-storage proposal on land south of Westerton Road, Keith.
The existing Keith Greener Grid Park and any proposed extension must not be conflated. Developer, capacity, planning route, consultation dates and relationship to other infrastructure require primary-source checks before a detailed public account is added.
Dunscroft Wind Farm
Pre-applicationMeeting-reported claim separated
Low Carbon's current proposal is for up to 13 turbines, up to 200 m to blade tip, with a maximum generating capacity of 49.9 MW on land approximately 2 km south-west of Huntly.
A Huntly Community Council meeting produced a research lead that a presenter said the MOD and “Air Traffic Control” would object. That phrase does not establish which aviation body was meant. No formal objection by the MOD or any aviation body has been verified from a primary-source response.
Evidence control
Verified factReported local concernPattern evidenceQuestion for authorities
- The River Deveron itself will not be described as an SAC or SSSI unless a specific designation is established.
- Precise sensitive wildlife locations will not be published.
- A live procedure, request for information or question from DPEA is not a finding against any party.
- Where the source package has not been audited, the page says so.