CONSTRUCTION of a wind farm extension in Scotland featuring what are described as the “UK’s tallest onshore wind turbines”, at 200 metres high, is under way.
Hamilton-based family business Banks Renewables has announced today that construction work has begun on a 15-turbine extension to the Kype Muir wind farm in South Lanarkshire, around five kilometres south of Strathaven, after it secured new funding agreements with Greencoat UK Wind at the start of the year.
The extension will complement the 26-turbine Kype Muir wind farm, which has been operational since 2019, and they will together have a combined installed capacity of 155 megawatts, which would be enough to meet the annual electricity needs of around 112,000 homes – or a city larger than Aberdeen
Manufacturer Nordex has been contracted to supply and install the turbines for the project, while the balance of plant contract has been agreed with Scottish civil engineering contractor R J McLeod, as was the case with the original Kype Muir wind farm.
READ MORE: Ian McConnell – Time to take off blinkers and deal with alarming crisis
Richard Dunkley, managing director at Banks Renewables, said: "This is a landmark project for both ourselves and the wider Scottish renewable energy sector as we continue to increase our contribution to the UK’s journey towards net zero and COP26.
“The Kype Muir extension will be the first site in the UK to use highly efficient 200m turbines and will have an average output per turbine of 15GWh (gigawatt hours) per year, compared to an average of 9GWh per annum on the existing Kype Muir turbines, which will substantially increase the amount of renewable energy that the wind farm can produce."
READ MORE: Baxters declines to reveal remuneration for former Scottish Conservative leader's board role
Around 90 jobs will be supported through the construction of the Kype Muir extension, while contracts worth up to £10m are expected to be available to local suppliers in the surrounding area, Banks Renewables noted..
A new community fund linked to the Kype Muir extension scheme is also expected to deliver around £10m in funding for community improvement projects around the local area over the site’s 30-year lifespan, according to Banks Renewables.
Mr Dunkley highlighted Banks Renewables' appetite for further developments.
He said: "Onshore wind represents the best value for money to consumers as we continue to bring forward new renewable energy developments that support the Scottish and UK governments’ net zero and climate-change obligations, and we plan to deploy more renewables which will continue to play a key role in delivering the UK’s lowest-cost low-carbon energy.
“We’re proud that an organisation as well regarded as Greencoat UK Wind shares our vision for the delivery of the Kype Muir extension and their investment package is a real expression of confidence in the quality and impact of our plans.”
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