The application by REG Greenburn Limited for a wind farm and battery storage facility (‘Greenburn Wind Park’) on the former Greenburn coal mining site, west of New Cumnock, East Ayrshire was granted consent by Scottish Ministers in April 2023 under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989.
Since being granted consent, REG and its project partner ESB, have been conducting detailed energy yield studies and a commercial appraisal of the project in order to finalise their plans for implementing the project. This exercise has identified that there has been a significant increase in the estimated construction costs, including turbine, plant and material prices since the Greenburn Wind Park application was submitted in 2020. Also, it is now clear that the neighbouring North Kyle Wind Farm, which is now under construction, will have a detrimental effect on the wind resource available to the Greenburn Wind Park, where several of the turbines will be impacted by significant energy generation losses.
REG and ESB are therefore proposing a revision to the consented wind park, reducing the number of turbines from 16 to 14, to delete the turbines with the greatest energy generation losses, while increasing the turbine blade tip heights of all of the consented turbines from 149.9m to up to 180m (a number of which are proposed at 167.5m) These changes will improve the generating capacity of the Greenburn Wind Park, while reducing construction costs, enabling a commercially-viable project to be progressed. The 14 retained turbines would all be at the same locations as consented baring T11, which has been moved marginally to avoid a Telecoms link.
REG will be submitting a Section 36C application, to vary the existing consent, to the Scottish Government Energy Consents Unit during autumn 2024.
ESB, who would construct, own and operate the Greenburn Wind Park, is fully committed to delivering the project in time for the contracted grid connection date in October 2027. The recent secured ‘Contracts for Difference’, awarded in August 2023, was based on the revised proposals of 14 turbines up to 180m height to blade tip.
REG Greenburn Ltd has already committed to paying £5,000 per MW of installed capacity into a community benefit fund over the 35-year operational lifetime of the project. The community benefit fund would be administered by the 9CC Group. Whereas the consented Greenburn Wind Park project involved an installed capacity of 67.2MW, the revised proposals would see this decrease slightly to approximately 63MW, generating a CBF of approximately £315,000 a year or £11m over the 35-year operational term.