Iberdrola, through its subsidiary ScottishPower, will repower the ‘Hagshaw Hill’ onshore wind farm, one of the oldest in Great Britain, which will allow it to generate five times more ‘green’ electricity with almost half the number of turbines. The park, which has a total power of 16 megawatts (MW), will thus go, with its 14 new and more powerful turbines -almost half of the current ones-, to add an installed capacity of more than 79 MW once the repowering work.
In operation since 1995, the ‘Hagshaw Hill’ wind farm, located in South Lanarkshire, was at the forefront of wind energy production in Scotland, discovering more than 895 megawatt hours (MWh) during its 28-year lifespan, reported the energy ethics
The repowering of ‘Hagshaw Hill’, Scotland’s first commercial wind farm, is part of Scottish Power Renewables’ strategy to maximize the efficiency of its existing projects by replacing older turbines with new, more powerful and efficient models.
The project is expected to maintain more than 100 jobs at its peak, and even more indirect opportunities during decommissioning and construction of the supply chain. Work is currently underway to dismantle the turbines and prepare the ground, for which the Scottish firm Forsyth of Denny was awarded the dismantling contract. This decommissioning process will continue through the summer and early fall with delivery of the first new turbines expected in May 2024. The new farm should be fully operational by early 2025.
The general director of ‘Onshore’ of ScottishPower Renewables, Barry Carruthers, stressed that repowering allows wind farms that are reaching the end of their operational life to have a new opportunity and also become “more efficient and maximize the energy we get from them.
“Hagshaw Hill is a great example of this. We have worked in this area for almost 30 years, we know how good this site is and we will now be able to produce enough electricity to power almost 61,000 homes every year, almost half of the homes in South Lanarkshire. “, said.
Expedite legislation to repower old parks
In addition, he stressed that repowering is “essential to achieve the ambitions of ‘Net Zero'”, although he detected the need to be able to do it “faster than current legislation allows”.
“We know these sites, we know how to look after them and we know how much more they can offer to the UK if we can repower them fast enough,” he added.
