Planning & Consultations

We publicise events in a local print newspaper and on the digital site for the paper. Additionally, notices for events are published at www.facebook.com/XLCCHunterston and www.xlcc.co.uk and we send invitations to community councils to disseminate to the community. When possible, we will put flyers up in the local community.

We are looking to expand how we communicate and have employed a Community Liaison Officer that will oversee our events.

XLCC has submitted a full EIA.  We have also appointed an ecologist for the site at Hunterston to ensure that we fully comply with regulations and legislation.

XLCC will have a huge positive impact on the environment as we provide the infrastructure to move renewable power from the source of generation to supply the demand.  This will reduce the carbon footprint substantially both nationally and internationally as we shift the reliance away from fossil fuels.  There are also some partial offset measures that we will implement such as planting trees to compensate for the carbon released in the concrete manufacture which will be used to build the factory. We would ideally purchase aluminium which has been produced from renewable energy sources.

For more information about our environmental impact, please visit: https://xlcc.co.uk/our-environmental-impact/.

We have provided all the required information to the North Ayrshire Council and their environmental health officer. We intend to comply with all legislation and regulations including those related to noise. There will be ongoing noise monitoring and a number readily available to reach a Community Liaison Officer should there be any concerns.

We fully expect the construction phase of the project to generate more noise than operation as there will be piling required for building foundations, etc.  The slipform process would generate less noise.  We also expect the tower to be built in approximately 13 months (plus any weather delays). 

For the factory, the metrics provided by the manufacturers regarding noise production report a maximum noise level of up to 82db from 1m away at 1.5m height (which is a safe level without ear protection). As part of our standard on boarding process all staff will be given training with respect to noise levels and the potential impact this may have on their health.

The noise levels will be checked from the storage carousels after they have been built to ensure they are operating within limits provided. If there are any breaches to the limits then mitigating works will be provided to reduce the noise levels.

Also, the intent is to have the potential for 2 trains per week delivering raw materials for the production process to the factory.

The XLCC cable laying vessel will be hybrid powered. It will therefore come into the port and exit the port on electric power. When at the port it will be plugged into a 3MW power source at the jetty so this should be as silent as possible. There should be no generators or engines running at the port. The vessel should also only be at the port for re-supply. Other than any weather delays, etc., the vessel should be at the port for about 7 – 8 days at a time but only for 8 visits per year. If there are any unforeseen weather delays, etc., then the vessel may be there for longer periods but would still operate with electric power.  A new electricity supply will be installed down the jetty for the XLCC vessel. 

The jetty is operated by Peel Ports and we have no control over which vessels use the Hunterston jetty (such as military vessels).  There may be some very limited use of the jetty for XLCC but the planning permission for production was based on the premise of road transport only.  We are also looking to utilize rail transport to reduce the number of HGVs on local roads (and to reduce our carbon footprint).  We have no plans to subcontract or to introduce other vessels for cable laying.

Details of the planning application can be found on our website.

The vast majority of the traffic will travel to the site from the South, and we envisage that the average number of LGVs (light goods vehicles) during operation per day will be around 43. During construction, this number will increase to around 80 on average. The average number of HGVs (heavy goods vehicles) per day will be less than this number.

Peel Ports are upgrading the rail link within the port area to allow materials to be brought to the site using the rail network. We are planning to use this method to deliver raw materials to the site where possible (where there is capacity on the rail network in the UK and commercially viable). Each train journey could remove up to 60 HGVs from the road. No train journeys were including in the planning application so this would be a direct reduction in traffic movements. The freightliner will use green biofuels, almost half of which is hydrogenated vegetable oil, further reducing emissions in addition to removing road transport.

We are discussing putting a train stop in at Hunterston Parc.

We plan to avoid using dyes or paint on the tower (paint would require a substantial amount of plastic would be used within the paint system).  A concrete tower would be the most appropriate for the location (given the average cloud cover, visibility, etc.).

The extrusion tower is a fully enclosed essential element of the manufacturing process providing the highly important insulation for the high voltage cables which are manufactured in the factory. The tower will house 6 x extruding machines which will be used to apply insulation to the conductor.

This process will not release anything into the atmosphere. The structure is a tower and not a chimney of any sort, it is 185m high as the cooling process requires a vertical installation to enable the material extruded to cure in a circular manner, if this was horizontal then gravity would take the extruded material to the bottom of the cable and the cable would lose its required “roundness”. The height of the tower relates to the speed the extruders are required to operate at, which is approx. 1m / minute. The cooling process takes 180 minutes so this determines the tower height.

There are many different types of job opportunities including engineering, testing, maintenance, logistics, research and development, health and safety, accounting, systems, HR and procurement.

We aim to recruit most of the staff locally.  This will include college graduates (we are working with Ayrshire college to recruit at least 360 of their graduates between 2023 and 2025).  We are working with the DWP to look at hiring unemployed people (including disadvantaged groups who may be long term unemployed) and also other local businesses who are ramping down their own staff numbers. In addition, we are talking to Universities in Glasgow to look to recruit some of their graduates from 2024.

The factory will operate 24 x 7 for 350 days per year. There will be a 2x shift system for the factory staff although the office based staff will work in normal business hours.  Anyone working on shift work would need to be available to work during the required hours.

There would be various types of support for local charities and communities.  These would be selected by the employees (probably on a rolling 12 months basis).  They would also be enabled and facilitated by paid days off for that support.

As part of the Environmental, Social and Governance plans for XLCC which were exhibited at Millport, there is an intent to purchase locally where this is commercially viable.  This includes the transport and the carbon footprint cost rather than simply a “price per unit”.  However, there are some materials (such as the XLPE – the insulation for the cable) which are only produced internationally, so these will have to be purchased overseas.

We intend to publish targets for local procurement content.  This will include via our main contractor for the build phase and also by XLCC for the production phase.

We are sharing images of the factory from different locations in line with the planning requirements.  We are also showing a 4D video of the construction process and images of the finished factory at the public communication events which are being held locally each month.

No, it will not.

XLCC is a manufacturing company that will supply the infrastructure to move renewable power from the source of generation to the place of consumption. We are producing High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) cables. The current economics of renewable energy projects allows solar and wind power to be generated cost effectively. We would be delighted to support tidal power generation when this is commercially viable.

We intend to provide public liaison through a locally hired member of staff.  This will facilitate awareness of STEM careers that are available to a diverse range of candidates.  We intend to present to high schools and primary schools as part of this process.  We will also organize factory tours to encourage STEM awareness.

There are no plans for any additional screening to that already proposed.

The tower will be built on bedrock below the ground level. This will be constructed on “concrete raft” which is the accepted process for this type of building on the ground conditions found at Hunterston.

We will provide drawings during public communication sessions once the revised design of the jetty is complete. We are seeking to reduce the height of original plan.

The conveyor will start at 8m high but will then drop to a much lower level once the railway has been cleared. It is anticipated that this will be below 2m.