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Main construction has begun on EDF Renewables’ 102MW Stranoch wind farm in Dumfries and Galloway.
It comes after 12 months of early construction work which has largely focussed on preparing the roads in and around Stranoch wind farm.
The site will home 20 turbines and is due to become operational in late 2026.
EDF has also announced that it has struck corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Tesco and BAE systems.
Matthieu Hue, Chief Executive of EDF Renewables UK said: “At a time when tackling climate change and energy security are at the forefront of all our minds, EDF Renewables UK is pleased to reach this major milestone on Stranoch.
“We are delighted to be working with Tesco on yet another project in Scotland to help the business decarbonise its retail portfolio and look forward to working with BAE Systems for the first time on such a project.
“We very much pride ourselves on working closely with local people at every stage of the process and enabling communities to maximise the benefit from renewable energy developments. As construction progresses, we will continue our regular dialogue with residents and communities around the project. I would like to thank the local community and everyone who has contributed to the project thus far.”
EDF Business Solutions said a third corporate PPA covering the rest of the electricity generation will be announced soon.
Civil contractors RJ MacLeod has been completing the enabling works and using the local quarry for stone and I&H Brown have been awarded the contract to complete the civil engineering works for the construction phase. Vestas will supply and install the wind turbines –
Matthew Nunn, director of EDF Business Solutions added: “These two corporate PPAs will utilise EDF’s unrivalled energy market knowledge and expert trading capabilities to facilitate the energy transfer to both Tesco and BAE Systems, providing access to clean and affordable energy.
“It is great to see two strong and successful UK businesses supporting the build of large renewable assets and making such big commitments to progress their journeys to net zero.”
The UK now has more than 15GW of operational onshore wind capacity. The milestone was broken earlier this year after EDF’s Benhar onshore wind farm in North Lanarkshire began operation.
It brings the UK’s onshore wind capacity to 15.002GW across 2,631 projects.
Most of the UK’s onshore wind fleet is Scotland with 9.4GW up and running, which is 63% of the nation’s total onshore wind capacity.
In England, where the de facto ban on onshore wind introduced in 2015 is still largely in place, 2.93GW is fully operational (less than 20% of the UK’s capacity). Only one new turbine has gone live in England since the start of 2023, and one other is under construction.
Northern Ireland has 1.35GW (9% of UK onshore wind capacity) and Wales has 1.26GW (8%).
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