By Kristy Dorsey
RJ MacLeod has won a contract for the extension of a South Lanarkshire wind farm that will become home to the UK’s first 200-metre-tall onshore turbines.
The Glasgow-headquartered company will supply the supporting components and auxiliary systems to 15 additional turbines being installed at Kype Muir by Banks Renewables, the wind energy division of the family-owned mining and property construction Banks Group based in Durham, England. Construction is due to begin within the next few weeks, with the extension scheduled to begin generating electricity by the end of next year.
Located 7.5km south of Strathaven, the new turbines combined with Kype Muir’s 26 existing turbines will produce a combined 155MW of electricity annually. This will be enough to meet the needs of approximately 112,000 homes – the equivalent of a city larger than Aberdeen.
READ MORE: Renewables giant to bid for windfarm acreage in ScotWind round
About 30 RJ MacLeod staff will be employed on the project, with a total of 90 jobs supported during construction. Banks Group expects to spend a further £10 million with local suppliers.
RJ MacLeod and Banks Renewables also worked together on the initial Kype Muir wind farm, as well as at nearby Middle Muir.
“Onshore wind farms deliver significant investment in rural areas in Scotland,” said Gordon Thomson, head of projects at Banks Renewables. “Our Kype Muir wind farm alone will invest almost £100m locally to nearby communities around Strathaven over its lifetime.
“The new extension at Kype Muir will not only provide a financial boost to local economies, but will also provide job opportunities for local people too.”
READ MORE: Energy giant seeks approval for huge hydro plant in Argyll
A new community partnership linked to the extension scheme is expected to deliver approximately £10m in community funding for local projects and groups over the site’s 30-year life. Added to the existing Kype Muir wind farm benefits fund, a total of more than £770,000 will be provided to support community groups and environmental projects.
Jamie Corser, business development manager at RJ MacLeod, said: “Being a Scottish company that’s been around since the 1950s, employing locally to sites is something we have always believed in and something Banks has always believed in. We’re very much on the same page.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel