A windfall from two wind farms
Community groups can cash in
Banks Renewables are making a €113million turbine investment as part of their construction of two new onshore wind farms in South Lanarkshire.
The family-owned firm signed the Euro-deal with German wind turbine manufacturer Senvion for the supply and installation by April 2018 of 41 turbines with a combined generating capacity of 139 megawatts (MW).
Kype Muir Wind Farm, to the south of Strathaven, will have 26 turbines, with the remaining 15 being installed at the Middle Muir Wind Farm site, north of Crawfordjohn.
The two schemes will offer businesses based in their respective areas the opportunity to tender for contracts worth up to £24m in total in relation to different elements of the scheme, including construction, security, accommodation and catering.
Community benefits funds will be created from revenues generated by the wind farms, offering a combined total of £22.8m of funding over their 25-year lifetimes for community groups, environmental and voluntary projects, in order to provide tangible long-term benefits for the community from Banks’ presence there.
Richard Dunkley, executive director at Banks Renewables, said: “Modern, efficient onshore wind farms such as Middle Muir and Kype Muir are acknowledged as providing the lowest cost form of carbon-free renewable energy generation for the UK, and we firmly believe they have a central role to play in the UK’S future energy mix, as well as in generating more of the energy that we all use via renewable means. The high-quality turbines and support package offered by Senvion match the requirements for each of these schemes extremely well, and we’re very pleased to be working with them once again as we work towards further increasing the amount of clean, green energy we are producing from our portfolio of Scottish onshore wind farms.”
Banks Renewables have agreed 20-year operations and maintenance contracts for both projects, which will generate enough green energy to power more than 80,000 homes.