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Paul's Hill Wind Farm Open Day
Hundreds of people took the opportunity to tour one of Scotland's most productive windfarms on the 27th of September. Many visitors were impressed with the £57million investment on the summit of Paul's Hill, comprising 28 turbines, situated on open hills 23km south west of Elgin and 15km west of Aberlour.
Natural Power provided design, development and construction management services to the project owners, Fred Olsen Renewables Limited (FORL), and are now employed on the site in an asset management capacity.
The invitation for the public to get a close-up look at the 320ft Siemens 2.3 turbines was extended by FORL (see www.fredolsen-renewables.com for more information). Around 600 people were bussed to the hilltop site from Ballindalloch Golf Course over a six hour period, and were able to take spectacular in views of the local area, and the Cairngorms, during fantastic weather. Many parents took the opportunity to take their children up to the windfarm making it a day out for all the family. Representatives of Natural Power and FORL, were on hand to show visitors around and answer questions.
The 28 turbines on Paul's Hill produce enough electricity annually into the national grid to supply approximately 47,000 homes and have a maximum capacity of 64.4 MW. A marquee was erected at the golf course for the day. Visitors were able to enjoy refreshments and listen to specially composed music that was based on actual recordings of wind speed. Chris Helston and Sarah Jackets, Scottish based artists, had produced a musical score that varied in pitch, tone and rhythm in response to signals from a ZephIR laser anemometer which measured wind speed, direction and turbulence.
Fred Olsen Renewables were delighted with the support shown by locals, with Katherine Stovring of the company saying:
"This is the first public open day we have run for the Paul's Hill Wind farm and we are absolutely are delighted with the positive response received from the general public. Fred Olsen Renewables wish to be known as a 'good neighbour' for the lifetime of the project and hope that by opening our doors to the public we are showing our commitment to being an active community participant."
Overall the open day proved a great success for young and old, with many spending a number of hours on the windfarm. Of the people who filled in a questionnaire, over 90% of those questioned approved of the scheme and over 92% said they would approve of an extension.
Natural Powertools™ unleashed at Hadyard Hill
Natural Power have recently been working closely with Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) at the Hadyard Hill windfarm, near Girvan in South Ayrshire.
This 120 MW site, consisting of 52 Siemens 2.3 turbines, is sited on complex forested terrain, and Natural Power is analysing the site closely to determine strategies for maximising turbine performance and optimising maintenance regimes as well as providing services to improve the accuracy of production forecasting.
This contract on Hadyard Hill is of particular significance to Natural Power, representing the first time that the three Natural Powertools™ of ZephIR, Ventos and Melogale are being used together on a site to build up the most advanced mathematical picture possible of a fully operational windfarm.
ZephIR is our laser anemometer which remotely measures wind speed and direction up to 150 metres in height. The system, of which there are almost 40 worldwide now, is the leading remote sensing technology in the industry and is demonstrating great benefit for a range of applications from site assessment to permanent wind farm anemometry (for more information visit www.naturalpower.com/ZephIR).
VENTOS is CFD code used for modelling wind flow across a site, particularly useful where there is complex terrain or forestry present which causes problems in traditional wind flow solvers. Our Feature Article explains more...
Melogale is an exciting suite of tools which allow wind farm owners and operators to trace every kWh of generation achieved and lost in order to target the site management on a past and future cost basis. Used across a portfolio of sites already, it is helping to generate accurate reporting from all the data sources available in modern wind-farm operations, including both SCADA and real-world data (for more information visit www.naturalpower.com/VENTOS)
For more information on how our natural powertools™ can help productivity on your sites email us at sayhello@naturalpower.com.
Crystal IA Commissioned successfully
This five turbine extension to Crystal Rig windfarm in the Scottish Borders has now been constructed and commissioned by Fred Olsen Renewables.
Crystal Rig Wind Farm
The 25 x 2.5 Megawatt Nordex N80 machines take the site up to an installed capacity of 62.5 Megawatts, approximately equivalent to supplying the energy needs of 45,000 homes.
Fred Olsen Renewables, the site operators, now have a Scottish portfolio of 177.5 Megawatts across three sites, and are looking ahead to the 51-turbine Crystal Rig II development, due to begin construction in 2008.
Natural Power have provided services throughout the scoping, design, consenting, construction and operation stages of this development, bringing our project experience up to nearly 2,000 Megawatts. Natural Power continues to be involved as asset managers for the Crystal Rig windfarm, with our asset management portfolio now covering a total of 285 Megawatts - more than any other consultancy in the UK.
For more information on our asset management services visit www.naturalpower.com/products-and-services/asset-management/.