Harestanes wind farm opening. Picture by Chris James 1/7/14

Harestanes Windfarm opening.
Picture by Chris James 1/7/14

ScottishPower Renewables officially opened the 136 megawatt (MW) Harestanes Windfarm near Dumfries, one of Scotland’s largest onshore windfarms on 1st July 2014. The £160 million project  supported more than 150 jobs over the two year construction period, 60 directly from the local community. The windfarm can produce enough renewable energy to meet the average electricity demands of over 88,000 homes* per year.

The full site covers an area of 20 km2 in the Forest of Ae, which is managed by Forest & Land Scotland. As well as installing 68 wind turbines, construction work  also included the development of new operations and maintenance building, and the creation of 11km of new tracks and paths which  are opened to members of the public for recreational use. Mountain bikers have also benefited, with a new 4km trail being built on the famous 7stanes cycle route.’

*Based on the following calculation: 136MW (installed capacity) x 0.2662 “onshore wind” average load factor (Digest of UK Energy Statistics) x 8760 hours (hours per year) / 3578 KWh (average domestic annual consumption, published by BEIS Dec 2020) = 88,636 homes powered equivalent.