09/28/2023

Rising costs and windfall tax impeding Sanquhar II development

Sanquhar II Wind Farm “SQII”, the UK’s 4th largest onshore project with 44 turbines - 308MW of much needed green capacity has ground to a halt as a consequence of the unfair “Windfall Tax” on New Renewable power plants. This project is “shovel ready” with civil construction starting next year and first-generation due summer 2025.

Image: Community Windpower

SQ II was projected to cost c £300m however infrastructure costs have been hit with a triple whammy of extreme inflation, 4-fold increase in interest costs and a weak pound. Costs now exceed £500m which remains cheaper than Gas fired electricity – however strangely polluting gas generators are exempt from “windfall tax”.

SQII developers, Community Windpower along with Industry call on the UK Govt to:

Exempt new projects from the “Windfall Tax”
Introduce Investment Allowances – in line with Oil & Gas
A sunset clause on “Windfall Tax” in line with Ireland/EU

Rod Wood, Managing Director at Community Windpower, said: “We’ve run the financial models . . . We cannot get the return on capital that we need to cover the bank requirements for financing."

Sanquhar II would have supported over 200 jobs, powered 350,000 homes with green electricity and saved 22 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over its 40 year life.