https://www.euronews.com/living/2020/04/28/uk-blown-away-as-huge-new-wind-farm-will-soon-power-170-000-homes
UK blown away as huge new wind farm will soon power 170,000 homes
By Maeve Campbell
last updated: 28/04/2020
A 50-turbine wind farm in southern Scotland will be up and running by
2023, sustainable energy firm Vattenfall confirmed this week.
South Kyle Windfarm, near Dalmellington, is set to be the firm’s largest
onshore wind farm in the United Kingdom. Once construction is complete,
the turbines will be able to power approximately 170,000 UK homes,
saving nearly 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
That’s the equivalent of 65,000 cars being taken off the road.
The deal agreed by Vattenfall and Greencoat UK Wind will cost £320
million. While this is a substantial amount, according to renewable UK,
investments such as these pay off as “onshore wind offers the most
cost-effective choice for new electricity in the UK, bar none - it is
cheaper than gas, nuclear, coal and other renewables.”
The Scottish wind farm aims to boost the socio-economic climate in the
region, providing £38 million in community investment to benefit
surrounding areas over its lifetime.
“We are delighted that [] we can fulfill our commitments to the local
community and contribute to major investment in the area,” says Frank
Elsworth, Head of Market Development for UK Onshore. “Onshore wind in
Scotland has the potential to make a significant contribution to
reaching net zero and is the cheapest form of renewable energy
generation that brings us closer to that goal.”
A timeline for construction is yet to be confirmed but the plan is for
it to be operational by the beginning of 2023.
Whilst the erection of South Kyle wind farm is undoubtedly a step in the
right direction, Dr Doug Parr, Chief Scientist for Greenpeace UK says
the British government needs to do more.
“For many years the UK government blocked the cheapest source of
electricity, onshore wind, keeping bills and carbon emissions higher
than they needed to be,” Dr Parr tells Euronews Living.
“Hopefully this development shows that we have left that unhelpful
ideology behind, and in the future energy policy will be based on
evidence. And what the evidence shows is that we need to massively
accelerate our transition to clean energy, with a doubling of onshore
wind, a tripling of solar power, and a quadrupling of offshore wind over
this decade.”
Is wind energy the future?
Farmers once used windmills to grind their grains and pump water -
today, turbines generate electricity from wind. Over the past decade,
wind turbine use has increased more than 25 per cent per year, but it
still only provides a small fraction of the world's energy, according to
National Geographic.
Wind farms used to be thought of as an eye-sore or an “ugly blemish on
areas of natural beauty” but the clear advantages of the renewable
energy source soon started to outweigh the aesthetics argument.
The industry is booming. As technology advances, the cost of building
turbines is becoming cheaper and some governments, in the US for
instance, have begun offering tax incentives to encourage continued
development in the sector.
According to the Global Wind Energy Council, wind power avoided over 637
million tonnes of CO2 emissions globally in 2016. What’s more, 1,155,000
jobs were created by the global wind industry in the same year. 520,000
more people are expected to be employed by the wind industry in the EU
by the end of 2020.
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