Work is underway by SP Energy Networks (SPEN) to connect a community-owned wind farm to the national grid in the Scottish Borders.

The three-turbine Hoprigshiels Community Windfarm has been developed via a partnership between Borders Housing Association (BHA) and Community Energy Scotland (CES).

The scheme is the first of its kind to be developed by a Housing Association and is due to be completed in 2017.

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SPEN will now work over the next seven months to lay around 18km of new cables to feed generated power into the Grid.

Once connected, the wind farm will generate around 24.5GWh of electricity a year, enough to power around 4,000 households.

Johan Gillespie, Customer Engagement Manager at SPEN, said: "While our engineers have connected many windfarms in the past, this is the first time we've connected one to the Grid that is wholly owned by two charities.

"The connection will be solely underground so there is no visual impact and it's great to play a part in another exciting stage for this unique community driven project."

The scheme is estimated to be completed by the end of July 2017.

(LM/JP)