Banks Renewables, the renewable energy division of the Durham-headquartered Banks Group, is making a multi-million pound turbine investment as part of its construction of three new onshore wind farms.The family-owned firm has signed a deal with leading global wind turbine manufacturer Senvion for the supply and installation of 47 turbines for three onshore wind farm projects with a total generating capacity of 151 megawatts (MW).
Forty-one Senvion 3.4M114 turbines will be provided for two Scottish sites by April 2018, with 26 being used at the Kype Muir Wind Farm and 15 at the Middle Muir Wind Farm, both in South Lanarkshire.
The remaining six turbines will be used at the Moor House Wind Farm to the North East of Darlington, which is expected to be operational before the end of 2017.
The Moor House scheme, which will be sited on land to the north east of Barmpton, around three miles to the east of the A1, will offer local businesses the opportunity to tender for contracts worth up to £4.5million in relation to different elements of the scheme, including construction, security, accommodation and catering. Construction is scheduled to begin by December 2016.
A community benefits fund will be created from revenues generated by the wind farm, offering £375,000 of funding over the 25-year lifetime of the scheme for local community groups, environmental and voluntary projects, in order to provide tangible long-term benefits for the community from Banks’ presence there.
Banks Renewables has also agreed 20-year operations and maintenance contracts with Senvion for all three projects, which will between them generate enough clean, green energy to power more than 80,000 homes.
Banks Renewables has established itself as one of the UK’s leading developers in the onshore wind energy sector, and has a number of ongoing projects at various stages of development across the north of England and Scotland.
Richard Dunkley, executive director at Banks Renewables, adds: “Modern, efficient onshore wind farms such as Middle Muir, Kype Muir and Moor House are acknowledged as providing the lowest cost form of carbon-free renewable energy generation for the UK, and we firmly believe they have a central role to play in the UK’s future energy mix, as well as in generating more of the energy that we all use via renewable means.
“The high quality turbines and support package offered by Senvion match the requirements for each of these schemes extremely well, and we’re very pleased to be working with them once again as we work towards further increasing the amount of clean, green energy we are producing from our portfolio of UK onshore wind farms.”
Raymond Gilfedder, managing director of Senvion Northern Europe, adds: “We are delighted to be continuing our long standing relationship with Banks Renewables and we look forward to further building on this partnership. The successful conclusion of these three contracts demonstrates the strength of the Senvion product portfolio for the UK market and continues what has been a very promising 2016 for Senvion so far.”