Local energy firm builds its 50th wind turbine in South Lanarkshire

A Hamilton based renewable energy firm, Banks Renewables, has erected its 50th onshore wind turbine after work was completed on the first of the 15 turbines that will make up the Middle Muir wind farm near Crawfordjohn.
Banks Renewables have just installed their 50th wind turbine.Banks Renewables have just installed their 50th wind turbine.
Banks Renewables have just installed their 50th wind turbine.

Banks Renewables constructed its first onshore wind farm - the 12-turbine West Durham wind farm near Tow Law, in County Durham - in 2008, and has gone on to build and commission a further eight similar schemes across the north of England.

Two of these have also been in the North East, with the Lambs Hill wind farm near Stockton-on-Tees coming online last year in 2017 and the Moor House scheme near Darlington starting to generate green electricity earlier this year in January 2018.

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Three of Banks Renewables’ other wind warms are in Yorkshire, while the Armistead wind farm near Kendal in Cumbria and the Heysham South wind farm in Lancashire complete the current operational list.

The Middle Muir wind farm is scheduled to be fully operational by early 2019, while a further five onshore wind farms in Scotland are at different stages of the planning and development process.

The 50 completed turbines have a combined generating capacity of 113MW, while Banks Renewables has secured planning consent for well over 100 turbines in total.

Almost £110,000 is already being generated in total every year for the benefits funds linked to each of the wind farms, which use revenues from the schemes to provide financial support for community projects and good causes in their respective areas and which will each run for the full length of the projects’ lifespans.

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Richard Dunkley, managing director at Banks Renewables, says: “When Banks Renewables was established, it was with the goal of becoming one of the UK’s leading owner / operators in the onshore wind farm sector and reaching this landmark shows just how far we’ve come in achieving this objective.

“The money generated by our wind farms is making a big difference to the facilities and activities that people living near them are able to access, and will continue to do so through their 25 year lifespans.

“Onshore wind is recognised as being the most effective technology in delivering carbon reduction targets for the UK at the lowest cost for the consumer and has a key role to play in generating more of the energy that we all use in powering our homes, businesses, schools and hospitals via renewable means.”