Forty-five gigawatt hours. That’s the amount of low-cost, low-carbon electricity being generated every year by Rigmuir Windfarm.
CleanEarth conceived of, secured through planning, built, and energised the windfarm on a former landfill site just outside East Kilbride. The brownfield site is now home to three 150m wind turbines, each sporting 68-metre blades. Components of such a large scale present a sizeable logistical challenge, especially when transporting those blades through the centre of the largest town in South Lanarkshire.
All the turbine components arrived in the UK by sea, at Glasgow’s King George V Dock. The journey to Rigmuir Windfarm is only twelve miles as the crow flies, but it feels much further when you’re manoeuvring 68-metre turbine blades. Negotiating the city streets of East Kilbride – and its numerous roundabouts – required the use of specialist haulage equipment and a great deal of forward planning.
Through the innovative use of a blade lifter, we were able to tilt blades at angles up to 60-degrees – clearing pinch-points and obstructions along the route. And by travelling in the early hours, we ensured that disruption to local traffic was kept to a minimum.
Once everything was safely delivered, the team made short work of building each turbine from the ground up. The entire process, from commencement of the delivery programme to energisation, took just three months.
The completed Rigmuir Windfarm is now generating 45 GWh annually – sufficient energy to power 34,000 homes. In doing so, this generation will save 9,500 tonnes of carbon emissions annually – over a quarter of a million tonnes of CO2 during the project’s lifetime.
At this crucial time in the UK’s journey to net zero, Rigmuir Windfarm will play a significant part in the UK’s ongoing efforts to decarbonise the grid.
