Cair Vie Onshore Windfarm Project

Cair Vie Windfarm Project

Consultation Dates

Frequently Asked Questions

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Virtual Reality Experience

Please note the 'Virtual Reality Experience' will be live from the 19th October

Manx Utilities is currently progressing an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and design stage for an onshore windfarm at Earystane plantation in the south west of the Island. The name of the proposed development, ‘Cair Vie’, means fair wind in Manx.

The Isle of Man has one of the best onshore wind resources in Europe both in terms of availability and wind speed.

Based on an Island wide audit and feasibility assessments undertaken by specialist consultants Wardell Armstrong, this site appears to offer the best value to the electricity consumers of the Isle of Man with the lowest environmental impact when compared to the other option sites.

The Earystane location is one of the best sites in the Isle of Man in terms of generating electricity from wind with anticipated wind speeds in excess of 10m/s. This would mean that a windfarm at the site could potentially deliver more than one quarter of the Island’s annual demand.

Wind speed surveys have been undertaken over the last 12 months, with average wind speeds for the site now confirmed at >10.5m/s. This is also in line with historic data from a range of sources (including a 30 year data set from the Met. Office).

There are two design options currently being considered for the scheme:

• A four turbine design with 5MW turbines up to 150m
• A three turbine design with 7MW turbines up to 185m

The following graphic shows the illustrative layout of these two design scenarios at the site, alongside the heights of the turbines.

 

The following links show how the two potential windfarm options could look at different locations on the Isle of Man:

View from Ballakilpheric, A36 – 900m from site – 3 turbine option

View from Ballakilpheric, A36 – 900m from site – 4 turbine option" etc.

View from Castletown, Malew Road – 5.1km from site – 3 turbine option

View from Castletown, Malew Road – 5.1km from site – 4 turbine option

View from Port St. Mary, Beach Road – 4.6km from site – 3 turbine option

View from Port St. Mary, Beach Road – 4.6km from site – 4 turbine option

View from Cronk Ny Arrey Laa – 550m from site – 3 turbine option 

View from Cronk Ny Arrey Laa – 550m from site – 4 turbine option

The full Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has focused on 12 key impact areas.  These areas cover social (local stakeholders), noise, landscape & visual, ecology, energy & climate, airport, water & flood, transport, air quality, geotechnical, heritage & archaeology, planning and importantly, provides for consultation with the local community, which we are now undertaking.

The consultation process will give Island residents the opportunity to find out more about the project, how impacts would be managed and how to actively participate in the design. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is expected to be completed in 2025 to support our planning application.

Information on planned public engagement sessions for both the local community and Island residents will run from 19 October 2024 to 27 October 2024.

An additional year of bird and bat surveys have also commenced at Earystane and the data from these surveys will help to finalise the design in 2025.

 Project Milestones

The roadmap below shows the necessary actions to deliver the onshore windfarm by the 2026 target set by Tynwald in the Climate Plan 2022–2027 as well as meeting the target within the Island Plan.