This week brought immediate good news from the new UK Labour government on the future state of onshore wind development in the UK. Well established as one of the cheapest forms of energy onshore wind stands to deliver value to the bill payer as well as creating more jobs in wind in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. With it should come some revisions to national planning policy removing the ability for a single local planning objection to halt development. Development that hasn’t been seen since 2015. It also gives executive power to the new Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, to green light large wind farms that are deemed “nationally significant”.
So what will the new onshore development landscape look like?
Details at this time are sketchy until parliament resumes on July 18. However in the guidance given it is noted that “in the case of applications for the repowering and life-extension of existing renewable sites, give significant weight to the benefits of utilising an establish site, and approve the proposal if its impacts are or can be made acceptable.” This means that if you are able to use existing grid connections, infrastructure and height restrictions then there’s a good chance your project will be approved. This allows the highest wind sites (the oldest) to be repowered and continue to generate with newer, more reliable machines.
Similarly, small projects are also given consideration allowing for community schemes, small scale developers and tip height regulated sites to be considered for development.
So overall a good day for the wind industry in the UK.
Why second hand turbines will be important to UK onshore development
In England, there will be restrictions on tip height as well as G99 grid requirements to be met. It is unlikely that the new laws will permit a 6MW onshore giant just outside of Leighton Buzzard. This limits your onshore selection to the 2MW platform so it may be a better option for a second-hand turbine such as the Vestas V80, Vestas V90 or Enercon E70 or E82. Business in Wind offer a second-hand refurbishment service and coupled with DEIF’s controller retrofit offering, these turbines will be fully grid compliant, have open data access and therefore more options when it comes to O&M providers. There is also the possibility of up to 2.3% AEP gains due to parameter changes.
Controller retrofit during refurbishment ensures controller access and independent operation from day one for grid compliance and cheaper O&M
Previous project experience
DEIF partnered with Business in Wind who refurbish, transport and install second hand turbines in Europe on the Strathallen project. The project which is owned by Greencat used 4 x second hand Enercon E70 machines to be installed in Scotland during 2023 and commissioned in 2024. This site required G99 compliance and open access to data to allow Full Circle wind services to operate the wind turbines without interference from the OEM.
Strathallen wind farm: Image credits: Zephyrus Green Energy and Business in Wind
Read more about Wind Turbine Controller retrofit here:
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