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In Caithness, the 63 megawatt (MW) Strathy Wood project will become the latest to begin full construction, with pre-construction work already underway. The start of work follows the company's Capital Markets Day commitment to continue the pace of its UK ambition and investment, pledging to invest €8 billion into new clean energy infrastructure including in Scotland, from 2024 to 2030.
Victoria Allen, Head of Onshore Renewables Development Scotland, said: "RWE is entering 2024 strong, with our ambition in Scotland ever growing, and we are delighted to have reached significant construction milestones for Enoch Hill, Camster II and now Strathy Wood. Onshore wind has an important role to play in helping deliver the UK and Scottish governments' net zero emission targets in the coming years and remains the lowest cost form of renewable electricity generation."
Construction is already underway at Enoch Hill onshore wind project, located in East Ayrshire, Scotland. The project is expected to be operational by 2025, when it will be capable of generating enough electricity for around 67,000 typical UK homes. At 69 MW, Enoch Hill will be RWE's largest onshore wind farm to be built in Scotland and will use 15 Nordex wind turbines, with an overall maximum tip height of 149.9m.
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Camster II, a 10 turbine site, is also in construction in Caithness and sits alongside RWE's existing operational onshore wind site, Camster. The current construction project is due to be completed in 2025 and, once fully operational, will be capable of producing up to 36 MW of renewable electricity, enough to power around 35,000* typical UK homes.
Engineering contractor Farrans is leading construction for Enoch Hill and Camster II onshore wind projects, and has worked successfully on several other RWE renewable projects across Scotland.
Strathy Wood, a 63 MW plant located in Caithness, and located near existing onshore wind farm Strathy North will begin full onsite construction later this year. The project will have 11 turbines generating enough electricity to power 68,000 homes and will be completed by 2025.
RWE has a successful history of delivering onshore wind in the UK. It already operates a portfolio of 33 onshore wind sites with a combined installed capacity of 802 MW, and now has a further 168 megawatts MW currently under construction in Scotland. In addition, the company has a strong onshore wind development pipeline of 22 projects across Scotland and Wales, 16 will be located in Scotland, and capable of generating a significant 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of renewable electricity.
At its operating onshore wind farms, RWE is committed to supporting its neighbouring communities through flexible community benefits packages. The three onshore wind projects which have now entered construction will leverage an investment equal to around a total of £25 million into Scottish communities, based on a 30 year operational lifetime of the projects. This provides those communities with an opportunity to plan and develop a more sustainable future and achieve some of their bigger and more ambitious ideas. More broadly and over their entire lifetime, the renewables projects that RWE currently operates in Scotland will contribute an additional total of more than £17 million to Scottish community benefit funds.
