Wind Energy

E.ON progresses with its wind farm in Caithness

E.ON will this week begin to prepare phase two construction of its Camster wind farm in Caithness. The Camster wind farm will be situated between Lybster and Watten and feature 25 wind turbines capable of generating up to 50MW of electricity, enough power for up to 35,000 homes.

Work began in late 2010 to prepare the site access roads; this included the construction of seven kilometres of access roads and the upgrade of three bridges, to enable them to carry the weight of construction vehicles. Phase two will include building a temporary construction compound, wind turbine foundations, a permanent met mast and more site access tracks.

Dean Guy, Construction Project Manager at E.ON, said: ‘This is a major development for us. The Camster site is an excellent place for a wind farm and this next stage of construction marks a significant step towards completing the project, which we hope to be fully operational by mid 2013. ‘We’re working very hard to use local companies, as much as possible, throughout the construction of this wind farm and have appointed Highlands based contractors and plant and machinery suppliers.’

E.ON is committed to building and maintaining strong relationships with the communities surrounding its sites and a community benefits fund worth up to GBP150,000 per year will support local Caithness projects throughout the wind farm’s lifetime.

E.ON is one of the UK’s leading power and gas companies – generating electricity, and retailing power and gas – and is part of the E.ON group, one of the world’s largest investor-owned power and gas companies. We employ around 12,000 people in the UK and more than 79,000 worldwide;

The generation business produces enough electricity to cater for the needs of around eight million homes from a portfolio of world-class gas-, coal- and oil-fired power stations;

We’re a market leader in UK combined heat and power (CHP) with 12 sites supplying over 500MW of electricity and in excess of 900MW of heat;

We’re one of the leading green generators in the UK, with 21 wind farms located from Cambridgeshire to Kintyre;

We recently launched our first wave power generator, which is the first in UK waters and which is capable of generating 750kW of renewable energy;

We have 1,500MW of renewable capacity under development in the UK;

E.ON Group has announced it intends to reduced the carbon intensity of its generation by 50% by 2020 (on 1990 levels);

E.ON Group aims to invest up to EUR3bn between 2011 and 2013 on renewable generation and climate protection activities.

victoria.blake@eonenergy.com