Looking up: first turbines installed at South Kyle Wind Farm

The milestone was achieved earlier this month when Turbine E02 – located in the southern part of the wind farm – became the first of South Kyle’s 50 turbines to be assembled and installed on site.

As with all 50 of South Kyle’s wind turbines, E02 rises to 149.5m and is one of Nordex’s cutting edge Delta N133 models. Assembled in situ 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, all carefully transported to site from Ayr and Glasgow to South Kyle, then across site.

The installation of South Kyle Wind Farm’s first turbine comes almost two years after preparation work began on the site. Located in East Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway, between the villages of New Cumnock, Dalmellington and Carsphairn.

South Kyle is Vattenfall’s largest onshore development in the UK, 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 £38million over 25 years, whilst independent analysis indicates the project has fueled £44million of spend with local businesses, rising to over £93million across Scotland, with hundreds of jobs supported locally and nationally. Vattenfall’s extensive habitat management programme will also see extensive replanting and peat restoration at South Kyle.

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.”

The turbine transportation programme is now fully underway and work at South Kyle is accelerating across site with the next milestone expected to be the energisation of South Kyle’s first wind turbines later this summer.  The full project is on track for completion in early 2023.