The Burgar Hill Wind Farm is located off the A966 near Evie to the north of the west mainland of the Orkney Islands.
Completed in early 2007, the site comprises two Nordex N80 wind turbines with a combined generating capacity of 5 megawatts (MW).
A wind farm has existed at Burgar Hill for many years, having acted as a wind turbine test station since the 1980s. The site was selected in 2001 for two additional turbines by npower renewables, in conjunction with Orkney Sustainable Energy.
The site benefits from a range of features that are ideal for wind farm development. These include:
- An open exposed location that benefits from a fantastic average wind speed, believed to be currently the highest at any European wind farm, averaging over 10 metres per second.
- Good distance from existing houses.
- Excellent site access, which proved particularly important during construction.
- Excellent co-existence of the wind farm with current land use practices (livestock farming).
- The absence of national or regional landscape designations. At this size and location the two wind turbines will produce enough electricity each year to power around 3,300 homes1, approximately 40% of Orkney's households.
References:
1. Based on an average home utilising 4700 kWh per year (Ref: The Digest of UK Energy Statistics 2005).
Burgar Hill Wind Farm
