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Scottish Windfarm to Receive Essential Upgrades and New Turbines
Hagshaw Hill is to repower it’s windfarm as part of the UK Government’s renewable energy plans – the first time the farm has been active since 1995. One of Britain’s oldest windfarms, Hagshaw Hill is in Lanarkshire, Scotland, and is currently in the process of having it’s 26 older turbines dismantled. They will instead be replaced by 14 newer and larger turbines, capable of generating 5 times more energy than the original site.
Each turbine will stand at a height of approximately 200 meters, compared with the older models which stood at 55 meters.
There will also be a battery storage facility at the new site which will store up to 20 megawatts of green energy.
This newly refurbished farm will increase energy generation from 16MW generated to 79MW once completed. Chief executive of ScottishPower Renewables, Charlie Jordan, commented on the plans and it’s potential for all of the UK’s older windfarms. “Wind power technology has improved so much in the last 30 years. Three modern wind turbines could produce as much power as the whole site.”
He adds, “Although Hagshaw is our oldest site, there were a number of windfarms built in the late 1990s which are coming to the end of their operational lives. We have a dozen more to repower over the next three or four years.”
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The new windfarm at Hagshaw Hill would provide 100 new jobs for locals once completed, which is widely supported by the local community.
ScottishPower is now calling for more older sites to be repurposed and upgraded. They want the government to begin planning on areas for windfarms that consider the lower risks of development as well as projects that are supported by the local communities. This is due to the fact that any plans to upgrade an older windfarm requires the same planning permissions as a brand-new site, despite the foundations and infrastructure already being in place.
ScottishPower will be dismantling the current site up until early Autumn, with the first of the new turbines to be powered and completed by early 2025.
The prospects of revisiting older sites for essential upgrades can be a huge turning point in the journey towards net zero. With the UK, especially Scotland, having huge amounts of land perfect for wind power, this could be the start of a revolutionary new initiative that could kickstart the countries transition to being fully powered by renewable energy.