Clyde wind farm information

The 152 turbines at Clyde wind farm are split into three sections with a total installed capacity of 350MW, capable of producing enough energy during a year to meet the needs of around 280,000 homes*. The project is situated between Biggar and Moffat occupying around 47 square kilometres.

Consent for Clyde wind farm was granted by Scottish Ministers in July 2008 with construction commencing in April 2009. At the peak of construction around 400 people were employed on the site. Clyde’s location presented many engineering challenges, including the need to construct around 105km of roads to enable access to the furthest reaches of the site. Associated infrastructure also included two substations, one operations building and a new radar installation in Cumbernauld.

The £500m project has contributed approximately £100m of contract value with companies in Scotland, including Wind Towers in Machrihanish supplying the turbine towers, plus associated indirect value to the supply chain. Clyde continues to provide a range of employment opportunities with 19 full-time SSE staff and 39 Siemens staff based across the site with additional jobs created off-site to facilitate operations and maintenance.

Clyde has the largest wind farm Community Investment Fund in Scotland which is expected to be worth around £22million (£875,000 per year for the lifetime of the wind farm). This includes £700,000 per year in South Lanarkshire of which 70% goes to local community projects and 30% to a regional development fund for businesses and organisations. There are also local community funds in Dumfries and Galloway and The Scottish Borders worth £140,000 and £35,000 per year respectively.

SSE submitted a proposal for a 57-turbine, 171MW extension to Clyde Wind Farm to Scottish Ministers in October 2011. In August 2012 SSE submitted an Addendum to this proposal reducing the number of turbines to 54 and maximum capacity to 162MW, moving nine turbines and reducing the tip height of ten turbines in response to landscape and visual comments raised by SNH and Scottish Borders Council during the application consultation period. The Clyde Extension wind farm has the potential to generate £121.1m value to the Scottish economy through contracts during the construction phase, with a further potential investment of £20.25m through the community benefit fund over the lifetime of the project.

Please visit Clyde Extension for more information. 

*Based on household consumption of 3,300 kWh per year.