Skip to main content
Menu
EDF Renewables Burnfoot Hill wind farm

Construction gets underway at EDF Renewables new West Benhar Wind Farm

By EDF | Posted February 22, 2021

Construction of the 7 turbine, West Benhar Wind Farm in North Lanarkshire will get underway on Monday 1 March. 

It comes after the project team secured planning consent for some design changes in September last year. These include an increased blade tip height, from 138.5m to 149.9m which will allow for greater electricity generation, and an increased operational life from 25 years to 30.

Planning permission allows for the installation of 8 turbines, but  EDF Renewables (EDFR) will only build 7 turbines. This is down to advances in turbine technology, so fewer are needed to fulfil the generating requirements of the site. 

With a generating capacity of up to 30.1 megawatts (MW), West Benhar will supply low carbon electricity to power more than 18,000 homes*

The project is expected to take up to 15 months to complete, with turbine delivery starting in mid-February 2022, and completion in June 2022.

Scottish contractor I and H Brown have been appointed to manage construction of the project, their work includes building the foundations and substation. Vestas will supply the seven  V117 4.3 MW machines.

Stelios Christodoulou, Construction Project Manager, EDF R, said “We are excited to get work under way, this project is an important addition to our portfolio of onshore wind developments. Not only will it accelerate our journey to a net zero future but it shows our commitment to investing and growing in Scotland.”

“We will be engaging with the local communities in the coming months to keep them up to date with the project and discuss both the community fund and opportunities for community investment.”

EDF Renewables already has an installed capacity of 500 MW of onshore wind in Scotland.

 



Notes to editors
*Load factors based on the five year rolling averages on unchanged configuration basis using Table 6.5 of ‘Digest of UK Energy Statistics’ - latest figures as per July 2020 release. Based upon the average domestic electricity consumption per home (temperature corrected) per the Energy Consumption in the UK (published July 2020, Table C9 of ECUK: Consumption data tables).

For further information please contact:
Lindsey Southworth, Senior Communications Manager, EDF Renewables
Email: lindsey.southworth@edf-re.uk
Phone: 07813 230 379
or
Suzanna Kerr, Community Relations Coordinator, EDF Renewables
Email: suzanna.kerr@edf-re.uk
Phone: 07384 530 116

About EDF Renewables

EDF Renewables UK and Ireland is a joint venture between two companies, EDF Energy (EDF’s UK business) and EDF Renewables Group (EDF’s global renewables business). EDF Renewables has an operating portfolio of 36 wind farms and one of the UK’s largest battery storage units (together totalling almost 1GW) and we are providing some of the much needed new affordable, low carbon electricity across all renewable technologies. We have an expanding renewables portfolio with almost 4GW of projects in planning and development across wind, battery and solar and we have 600MW currently under construction. We also have offices in Edinburgh, Durham, London and Dublin. 

Related articles

Gwynt Glas Celtic Sea Wind Farm Model developed to inform stakeholders of plans in early stage consultation.
July 08, 2022

The Crown Estate identifies Gwynt Glas area of search within its plans to deliver 4 gigawatts of floating wind energy from the Celtic Sea

Gwynt Glas, a DP Energy and EDF Renewables UK joint venture, welcomes the announcement from The Crown Estate identifying five Areas of Search in the Celtic Sea from which 4 GW of floating wind project development sites will be competitively tendered in mid-2023.
EDF Renewables existing operational Burnhead wind farm near Falkirk
July 07, 2022

EDF Renewables UK welcomes Contract for Difference success

Two EDF Renewables UK projects bid into the Contract for Difference (CfD) auction round held by the UK Government’s BEIS department have been successful.