New Scottish wind farm powers up

Jones Bros Civil Engineering UK has begun work at North Kyle Wind Farm in East Ayrshire, a 49-turbine wind farm with the capacity to power more than 160,000 households.

The £300M scheme near Dalmellington is located on and around the former Chalmerston and House of Water coal mining sites. First devised in 2016 and led by Brockwell Energy, the wind farm will be capable of generating 220.5 megawatts of renewable energy – a significant contribution to Scotland’s targets for renewable energy.

Enabling works completed earlier this year which included construction of the SP Energy Networks (SPEN) substation platform and construction compound.

Construction works scheduled includes construction of reinforced concrete foundations, excavating, and backfilling for cabling, as well as creating 24km of new access tracks and upgrading a further 20km to allow for turbine and transformer delivery.

Scheduled activity for the North Wales-based firm includes constructing reinforced concrete foundations, excavating, and backfilling for cabling, as well as creating 24km of new access tracks and upgrading a further 20km to allow for turbine and transformer delivery.

The development aspires to provide £65M in community benefits over 40 years, delivering investment and regeneration benefits into the area, restoring the former mining site, improving public access and providing a truly ground-breaking community benefit programme.

EDF has recently signed a seven-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Brockwell to purchase the renewable energy from the wind farm.

As part of the agreement EDF will offtake 100% of the renewable wind energy produced by the 220.5MW wind farm once the site becomes commercially operational in early 2025.

Tom Abbott, Head of PPA at EDF said: “It’s great to be definitively helping Britain achieve Net Zero through this PPA agreement, which will bring new renewables onto our grid via this new onshore wind farm in Scotland. We are delighted to be offtaking 100% of the renewable wind power from North Kyle, demonstrating EDF’s expertise in offering all types of PPA. Particularly in this case with a project that received a CfD, and our commitment to supporting new renewable projects.”

David Surtees, Commercial Manager at Brockwell Energy commented: “EDF has been a great counterparty to deal with. We set ourselves tight deadlines for closing the project and the EDF team was supportive and responsive throughout the process. EDF’s deep expertise in structuring PPA’s for renewable projects helped us to quickly get an optimal solution that addressed the needs of equity and debt providers.”

Jones Bros contracts director Garod Evans said: “This is our 20th Scottish wind farm, and it is of national significance in terms of scale, which is proof of our strong reputation in the sector.

“Our highly skilled team has already been hard at work, which has allowed us to hit the ground running on the main bulk of the project.”

First power generation from the wind farm in south west Scotland is expected in autumn 2024.

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