World's Biggest $840 Million Windfarm for Scotland's Isles

---

Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources Incorporated; Houston, Texas). After a period of concept development and consultation, feasibility studies have now begun on the proposed 'world's biggest' $840 million wind farm to be situated on the Scottish island of Lewis in the northern Atlantic. The project. If finally approved and built, will involve the construction of around 300 wind turbines that will generate at least 600MW of electrical power. This represents about one per cent of the United Kingdom's electricity power needs.

A sub-sea cable will connect the farm to the mainland. The windfarm's output will assist the UK government in reaching its required targets for sustainable energy generation under European Union (EU) guidelines by 2010. Plans for the windfarm are being drawn up by AMEC (LSE;AMEC) (London, United Kingdom) and its partner in the venture, British Energy (LSE;BGY) (London, United kingdom).

Ongoing consultations are taking place with the local community, the Scottish National Heritage, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Western Isles Enterprise, Western Isles Council and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The benefits to the region of the scheme are being presented as increased employment, income for landowners and the establishment of the Western Isles as the 'renewable capital of Europe'. Construction of the farm would also lead to the re-opening of a local fabrication facility at Arnish Point as a turbine and tower manufacturing plant.

Lewis contains some fairly forbidding terrain, which can absorb the host of fluttering rotor towers. But other western isles inhabitants are watching dourly and defensively at the advance of the rotors in what has become one of Europe's high quality lifestyle and retirement regions with the combined scenic delights of island and sea vistas. The benign Gulf Steam also helps to make life a wee bit more bearable in the Western Isles along with the life giving output of distilleries, without the intrusion of new-fangled technology for the benefit of far distant Sassenachs.

AMEC sees the Lewis project firmly establishing wind power as an essential element of the UK's energy mix. The company has 400MW of windpower projects in hand worldwide and another 200MW in the planning stage.

The company has received the go-ahead from local councils to develop the UK's largest 'brownfield' windfarm in the northeast of England in a venture with Corus (LSE:CS) (Redcar, United Kingdom) (formerly British Steel).

The 18 turbine farm will be placed on the steel company's 911 hectare site at Redcar. The scheme will generate electricity to meet the needs of 30,000 households or 72,000 people, which represents over half the population of Redcar and Cleveland Borough. After consultations with interested groups the $42 million scheme is now ready to progress to become operational before the end of 2003. The 'Tees Wind North' scheme is seen as a model for similar wind farm on nine further Corus sites in the UK and northern Europe.