The first turbine has been installed at an Ayrshire wind farm set to provide electricity for thousands of homes once complete.
Progress at Vattenfall’s South Kyle wind farm, near Dalmellington, is powering ahead as earlier this month Turbine E02, located in the southern part of the wind farm, became the first of 50 to be assembled and installed on site.
As with all 50 of South Kyle’s wind turbines, E02 rises to 149.5 metres tall and is one of Nordex’s cutting edge Delta N133 models.
The giant turbine – which is almost the height of 34 double-decker buses stacked on top of each other – was assembled by a team of expert engineers with some of the largest mobile cranes available.
It consists of three blades, three tower sections, a nacelle, hub and drive train.
The parts were all carefully transported to the site from Ayr and Glasgow via overnight transportations under police escort, which are still ongoing and continue to see the delivery of 64-metre long turbine blades and other major components to the site.
The installation of the first turbine at South Kyle – Vattenfall’s largest onshore development in the UK – comes almost two years after preparation work began on the site.
The full project is on track for completion in early 2023 and, with a capacity of 240MW, it will generate enough electricity to meet the equivalent demand of approximately 170,000 UK homes annually.
Once complete, it will also generate a fund for local communities worth an estimated £38 million over 25 years.
The next milestone expected at the site is the energisation of South Kyle’s first wind turbines later this summer.
Paul Nickless, Vattenfall’s project director for South Kyle, said: “I am delighted to see the first wind turbine installed at South Kyle.
“It is a demonstration of the hard work of our construction team.
“This signals a new phase of the construction programme of this major renewable energy project here in south-west Scotland.
“I look forward to reaching the next milestone of first power, producing fossil fuel free electricity later this summer.”
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