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Dooker - First Turbine Up at Sròndoire Community Wind Farm

Posted on 17/07/2015 by James Lithgow
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The Srondòire turbine construction crew worked through Wednesday night in near perfect weather conditions to erect Srondoire 3 - the Dooker - the first of three Vestas V80 turbines to be built this summer.

Over 200 Tonnes of turbine components were built up in twelve hours over Wednesday night and Thursday morning. 2015 has been an exceptionally windy year and Sròndoire enjoys higher than average wind speeds, so erecting the turbines in July’s predicted calmer conditions is a critical element of the Sròndoire build plan.  The construction team was a multinational affair involving Danish Vestas crew, the Polish FairWind turbine builders, a UK wide Ainscough crane team, with local content being provided by Charles McFadyen’s transport team's just-in-time delivery on site of the turbine components being brought up from Kintyre, and Gus MacKenzie the Vestas Construction Manager from Campbeltown, with the Pier Garage and Argyll & Bute Council Street Lighting electricians managing the large load access issues on the A83.

Lifting turbines requires very calm conditions and the team are prepared to deploy at short notice to take advantage of whenever low winds are available. Thursday night saw almost still weather, contrasting with 48 hours later when wind speeds exceeded 85 mph.

The “Dooker” is the shortest turbine tower at Sròndoire, sitting highest up the hill to the east of the existing Allt Dearg turbines.  She will be joined by a further two new turbines located lower down the hill over the new few weeks, with the turbines due to start generating at the end of October when grid export capacity becomes available.  Sròndoire like Allt Dearg, is locally owned with community shares held by Tarbert & Skipness to the south, and Kilfinan to the east.