Siemens and Airtricity, the renewable energy development division of Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), signed a contract on the supply of wind turbines for a major onshore wind farm in Southern Scotland.
The 2.3-megawatt (MW) machines will be used at the Clyde wind farm in South Lanarkshire 70 kilometres south of Glasgow which will have a total capacity of up to 350 MW. The wind farm will be commissioned in 2012.
Following the successful completion of the Scottish Whitelee wind farm earlier this summer — at 322 megawatts Europe’s largest wind farm to date — Clyde marks a new milestone for onshore wind power in Europe.
The scope of supply for Siemens includes the delivery installation, and commissioning the wind turbines. Siemens will also assume responsibility for operation and maintenance for an initial period of five years.
The Clyde wind farm will yield significant benefits for Scotland in terms of local value creation and jobs. The project will provide over 200 jobs during the construction phase and more than 30 jobs during its operational lifetime.
Clyde could become the largest onshore wind farm in Europe in only two years. The scale of the Clyde wind farm reflects UK’s ambitions to become forerunner in green technologies. The British government has set a target of 10 percent of electricity supply from renewable energy by 2010.
Wind power is an important part of Siemens’ environmental portfolio. In 2008, revenue from the products and solutions in the Siemens’ environmental portfolio was nearly EUR19 billion. That is, equivalent to about a quarter of Siemens’ total revenue and makes Siemens the world’s leading provider of eco-friendly technology.