Sandy Knowe Wind Farm

Burcote Wind is currently consulting on proposals for a wind farm of 30 wind turbines at Sandy Knowe, south-west of Kirkconnel and Kelloholm in Upper Nithsdale, Dumfries and Galloway, with an installed capacity of 90 megawatts (MW).

The Sandy Knowe site benefits from a very good wind resource, with estimated average wind speeds of around 8 metres per second (m/s).

The site is located away from major settlements and main roads.

The wind farm will produce around 237,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity, enough to power around 50,000 homes. That’s equivalent to 73% of all households in Dumfries and Galloway[1].

The windfarm will help to offset over 102,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year, reducing Dumfries and Galloway’s carbon footprint.

Burcote Wind is committed to ensuring the local community benefits from having a wind farm in their area. We will be exploring options with local groups for how a community benefit fund worth £5,000 per megawatt, £450,000 per annum, or approximately £11.25million over the lifetime of the wind farm can best be deployed to support community initiatives.

Burcote is also willing to work closely with the local community to explore innovative mechanisms for further increasing the total value of the community benefit fund over the wind farm’s lifetime.

Burcote Wind is aware of the sensitivities around windfarm developments. That’s why we’ve started an extensive period of community consultation. We want to hear the opinions of local people on our proposals before we submit a planning application, so that their views can help to shape development at the site.