innogy Renewable UK’s largest onshore wind farm, Clocaenog Forest has started generating renewable energy for the first time. The 96MW wind farm is located near Denbigh within the working forest, managed by Natural Resources Wales. It is expected to produce enough renewable energy to power the equivalent needs of 63,800 average UK homes per year, once fully operational at the end of the year.
Construction of the wind farm started in April 2018, with a contract worth in excess of £20million placed with leading Civil Engineering firm Jones Bros, based in Ruthin, just ten miles from site. The first of the 27 turbines was successfully erected in April 2019 and now first generation marks yet another major milestone for the project.
Turbine component deliveries have now also been completed, with the final delivery successfully arriving on site last Friday, with deliveries having begun in January of this year.
Andy Clayton, Clocaenog Forest Wind Farm Project Manager said;
“I’m extremely proud of the team. Despite challenging conditions at times, we now have 16 turbines erected and the recent achievement of first generation is a testament to the team’s hard work. Now that the turbine components have all been delivered to site, I’d also like to take the time to say a big thank you to the local communities and the police for their support and patience throughout the process.”
Once fully operational, the associated community funding worth a total of £19million over the operating lifetime will become available to applicants. This flexible funding has the potential to significantly benefit communities both very local to the project and more widely across North Wales. Currently the process is underway to put in place an organisation to administer the fund, with an announcement set to be made in the Autumn.
