RES, the world’s largest independent renewable energy company, has been at the forefront of the onshore wind industry’s journey over the last 40 years – witnessing the industry’s evolution alongside its own.
Having started as a small innovative wind turbine engineering team within Sir Robert McAlpine, RES is now a global company, with 4,500 employees across 24 countries spanning multiple technologies -delivering more than 27GW of projects globally and supporting 41GW of operational assets.
Like RES and their first designed and built 1MW wind turbine, onshore wind farms have been around, commercially, since the early 1990s.
The ability of wind turbines to harness the wind and generate clean, green, renewable electricity has improved significantly over the last few decades - and they are now an intrinsic part of our landscape and energised 21st century lives.
Scotland, in particular, is an onshore wind powerhouse - due largely to the fact that it has some of the best wind resource in Europe – with onshore wind representing approximately 60% of the total renewables installed capacity. As such, many people now assume that onshore wind has played its part in the renewables race; that we have enough onshore wind farms in Scotland and that the industry has handed over the baton to offshore wind and their sizeable projects out at sea instead.
In reality, however, onshore wind is set for unprecedented growth over the next few years, alongside offshore, with the Scottish Government planning to effectively double existing onshore wind farm capacity to 20GW by 2030.
To meet this capacity target, we require a step change in recruitment, skills and training to equip the industry to support this growth. Scottish Renewables recently reported that, in 2021, the onshore wind industry supported 12,000 jobs and generated more than £3.4 billion of economic activity across Scotland. To meet the 20GW capacity target it is predicted that four times more people will be required by 2027 to install and construct the onshore wind farms that will help us meet Scotland’s net zero targets, so the opportunities for employment and inward investment are substantial.
The reason onshore wind is so attractive is that, once consented, it is one of the cheapest forms of new electricity generation – and significant advancements in turbine technology have helped with this reduction in costs. Modern onshore wind turbines now stand at a typical 200m to blade tip and have installed capacities of around 6MW or more, meaning that each individual turbine is capable of generating enough power to meet the average electricity consumption of more than 5,000 homes. Onshore wind is also quick to build and enhances energy security by reducing our reliance upon imports.
Aberdeenshire is just one region in Scotland that is set to reap the benefits of this growth with its pipeline of new onshore wind farms. One such project is RES’ 16-turbine Hill of Fare Wind Farm near Banchory which was submitted into planning at the end of last year. It’s predicted to deliver a £150 million boost for the local economy, including more than 200 construction jobs, and reduce the equivalent of 69,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year whilst achieving carbon payback within 3 years.
To find out more please visit www.hilloffare-windfarm.co.uk.