Onshore Wind

Introduction

Scotland is one of the windiest countries in Europe, while the Highlands and Islands have Britain’s most sustained wind regimes for turbines and is seeing significant new investment.

Generating Capacity

Nearly 350 onshore wind turbines are currently operating in the Highlands and Islands (31% of Scotland’s total and 12.7% of the UK total) with 486MW capacity (26% of Scotland’s total and 12.5% of the UK total). These can power nearly 340,000 average households.

Onshore wind installed generation capacity in Scotland, at 1.88GW, currently makes up about half of the country’s 3.58 GW renewables capability, and also about half of the UK’s 4GW onshore wind capacity.

This UK generation capacity is enough to provide for the average electricity requirements of all Scotland’s 2.3 million homes.

For a few hours in September 2010, generation from onshore wind in the Highlands and Islands exceeded local demand meaning that the region was powered from 100 per cent renewable energy.

New Inward Investment

Significant investment is being made in the Highlands and Islands by Skykon Campbeltown Ltd to create a major manufacturing facility for onshore and offshore wind towers. In 2009 the company acquired the former Vestas tower factory in Argyll.

Skykon is a world-leading designer and producer of towers, foundations, internal components and other steel constructions for the wind turbine industry. Their Argyll facility is at Machrihanish, in the Kintyre peninsula, around 3.5 miles from Campbeltown Harbour.

Their investment in the Highlands and Islands involves another very important layer of engagement – a research and development centre is to be established nearby to the Machrihanish factory to advance their wind energy products.

Parent company Skykon A/S aims to take advantage of the increasing demand for wind power in the United States and Europe – and in particularly Great Britain and Ireland. CEO Jesper Øhlenschlæger said: "In a short time span, Scotland has developed into the most positive and interesting market for wind power in Europe. Both the Scottish Government and the local energy producers are focused on wind power, and we expect some 3,000 megawatts to be installed in Scotland over the next four years. As a result, we see Campbeltown as a unique platform to realise our target of being the leading supplier to this market."

Local Innovation

In contrast to the scale of Skykon's project, Chillwind, a company based in the West Highland village of Glenelg, assists developers to explore suitable sites for onshore wind farms. Specialising in wind-monitoring, over the last 16 years they have installed and commissioned over 1,000 systems throughout the UK and Europe. In addition to remote access data-loggers and instrumentation, the company also designs, develops and creates meteorological masts of up to 90m.