The Clyde Wind Farm is a wind farm located in Clyde Hill, Scotland. This wind farm is very special because upon completion, this wind farm will be the biggest wind farm in Europe. It has 152 wind turbines with an average electricity production of 350MW per month. This amount of power is enough to supply electricity for more than 200,000 households.
The construction of this wind farm is one of the Scottish Government’s efforts to meet its goal to provide 50% of Scotland’s electricity demand from renewable energy. The construction started in early 2009 and the completion is predicted by the end of summer 2012. The wind farm is divided into three sections that are North, Central and South. The South section has 52 turbines, the Central section has 69 turbines, and the North section has 31 turbines. Currently the South and Central sections are already completed and the wind turbines in these two sections have started producing electricity for Scotland. It took more than two years before the final design scheme for this wind farm project was approved by the Scottish Government. This article will provide you with facts that you need to know about this wind farm.
Facts on Clyde Wind Farm
- 1. This wind farm is developed by Airtricity and Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE). Before developing Clyde Wind Farm, SSE has developed more than 40 wind farms in Europe, Asia and North America.
- Clyde Hill in South Lanarkshire is chosen because it is out of development corridor; it is close to available grid capacity; it has high wind speed; and it avoid impacts on ecological and archaeological sites.
- This wind farm costs an investment of £500m. Half of the total investment has been allocated for Scottish companies before the construction began so local companies have contribution on the construction of this wind farm.
- There were about 50 changes that have been made toward the original design scheme. One of the changes was reduction on the number of turbines from 197 to 152 turbines.
- While this wind farm is being constructed, it can provide more than 200 construction jobs. When the construction is completed and this wind farm starts producing electricity, it can provide 30 jobs for operation and maintenance.
- The operational life of this wind farm is around 25 years. After 25 years, there will be two options: the turbines can be dismantled and removed from the sites or the turbines are continued to produce electricity.
- In June 2011, the first turbine in the South section has started producing electricity for Scotland
- The application to construct this wind farm was accompanied by an Environmental Statement, a document to show that the construction does not produce impacts toward the surrounding environment.
- In order to give benefits to the surrounding communities, Airtricity sets up a Community Fund for local communities. When the Clyde wind farm is fully operational, the total community fund will be about £750,000 per year.
The construction of this wind farm is a good step to reduce dependency toward electricity from fossil energy. It is expected that that there will be more wind farms construction after the completion of Clyde Wind Farm.
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