Work set to start on £30m County Durham windfarm

Thursday 01 May 2008

Work is set to start later this month on construction of the north east’s largest wind farm, after County Durham property and energy firm Banks Developments secured £30m of finance for the project from HSBC.

Situated on land near Tow Law, in the vicinity of Banks’ own offices in the town, the 12-turbine West Durham Wind Farm will provide enough renewable energy to power around 15,700 households, which equates to 46% of all households in the Derwentside district.

Banks has chosen Hanson Contracting as the main contractor for the project, with the t urbines for the wind farm to be provided by the German group REpower and the electricity generated being sold to energy company E.ON under a 15-year agreement.

Preparatory engineering work will start on the site shortly, with the first of the MM82 turbines, which will have a 100m tip height, due to arrive on site early in 2009.   Full energisation of the scheme will be complete by summer 2009.

Part of the land on which the development will stand was the site of a now-restored Stonefoot Hill surface mine that Banks operated in the 1980s.

Rob Williams, Renewables Projects Director at Banks Developments, says: “Locating this scheme at a site where Banks has operated a surface mine, and where underground coal mining had previously gone on for many decades before that, is an excellent representation of the changing nature of energy generation in the UK.

“This is a very significant investment by a privately-owned, north east-based company in the region’s energy infrastructure, and further reinforces Tow Law’s growing reputation as an energy generation centre.

“ County Durham has delivered its target to generate ten per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010.   This scheme further enhances the provision of secure local energy generation that the region enjoys, an issue that is becoming of increasing importance to the region’s industries.  

“Renewable schemes such as this have an important role to play in fulfilling the country’s energy requirements, and we are proud to have had reached this milestone with the support of HSBC.”

Contracts have also been awarded to electrical subcontractor Agrilek, civil engineering designers Grontmij, piling contractor Arsleff and local building contractor Pinkneys.   Pauwels will supply a 33-66KV transformer to connect the wind farm to the local grid, with work to complete the connection to be carried out by NEDL.  

Last updated: Monday 02 June 2008, 10:29 AM