RENEWABLE energy in Scotland has been given a further boost with news of a £87 million investment in two onshore wind farms.
Banks Renewables has signed a deal with turbine manufacturer Senvion to supply and install 41 turbines on the sites in South Lanarkshire.
It said 26 turbines would be installed at Kype Muir Wind Farm, south of Strathaven and 15 at the Middle Muir Wind Farm site, north of Crawfordjohn. By the time work is finished by 2018, their combined generating capacity will be 139 megawatts (MW) – enough to power more than 80,000 homes.
Local businesses will be given the opportunity to tender for contracts worth up to £24m in different areas, including construction, security, accommodation and catering.
Over their projected 25-year lifetimes community groups, environmental and voluntary projects will be offered a total of £22.8m in funding to provide tangible, long-term benefits from the company’s presence in the area.
Banks Renewables – a division of the family-owned Banks Group – has also agreed 20-year operations and maintenance contracts with Senvion.
Banks' executive director Richard Dunkley 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.”
Raymond Gilfedder, managing director of Senvion Northern Europe, added: “We are delighted to be continuing our long-standing relationship with Banks Renewables and we look forward to further building on this partnership.
“The successful conclusion of these contracts demonstrates the strength of the Senvion product portfolio for the UK market and continues what has been a very promising 2016 for Senvion so far.”
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