Garth Wind is a community-led project that sees five E44 class- one wind turbines, with a total generation capacity of 4.5MW, connected to the Shetland electricity distribution network as part of the NINES (Northern Isles New Energy Solutions) project. The developer appointed Green Cat Renewables (GCR) as their Client’s Engineer, which entailed the roles of NEC3 Project Manager and CDM Principal Designer.
The site, which enjoys very high wind speeds, is located on North Yell, one of the northernmost parts of the Shetland Archipelago, and is covered in blanket bog peatland.
The project relies on the Feed-in Tariff scheme, for which final commissioning by early March 2017 was necessary. However, on site works could only commence in September 2016. Under significant pressure, GCR managed the construction of 2km of access road and five cranepads over peatland, and the construction and commissioning of electrical substation, comms infrastructure and the turbines themselves on time, in spite of difficult conditions and challenges.
GCR’s scope entailed managing and overseeing the discharge of planning conditions, the procurement of project funding, the procurement and management of civil engineering and electrical engineering enabling works, the management of turbine installation and commissioning, grid connection, installation of satellite communication equipment and Active Network Management set-up, and the accreditation of the project under the Feed-in Tariff scheme.
