Work to start on Durham wind farm
May 3 2008 by Peter McCusker, The Journal
WORK is set to start later this month on construction of the North East’s largest wind farm, after property and energy firm Banks Developments secured £30m of finance for the project.
Near Tow Law, close to Banks’s offices in the town, the 12-turbine West Durham Wind Farm will provide enough renewable energy to power around 15,700 households (46% of all households in the Derwentside district).
Banks has chosen Hanson Contracting as the main contractor for the project, with the turbines for the wind farm to be provided by the German group REpower and the electricity generated being sold to energy company E.ON under a 15-year agreement.
Preparatory engineering work will start on the site shortly, with the first of the MM82 turbines, which will have a 100m tip height, due to arrive on site early in 2009. Full energisation of the scheme will be complete by summer 2009.
Contracts have also been awarded to electrical subcontractor Agrilek, civil engineering designers Grontmij, piling contractor Arsleff and local building contractor Pinkneys. Pauwels will supply a 33-66KV transformer to connect the wind farm to the local grid, with work to complete the connection to be carried out by NEDL.
Ernst & Young acted as lead adviser to Banks Developments on the finance and power purchase agreements, the finance package was provided by HSBC with Bond Pearce providing legal advice on all aspects of the project and Natural Power Ltd acting as technical advisors.
