Construction update

The good news this week is that we have a turbine!

The construction of T2 is now complete and we think it’s looking fabulous. A wonderful sight after the many years of hard struggle that it took to get to this point.

The other news is that our struggles are not quite over. Our other turbine is not up yet because its concrete base has not met ENERCON standards, on testing, and will have to be redone.

ENERCON are arranging to have the foundation rebuilt and will be moving as quickly as they can to ensure UistWind meets the Feed-In-Tariff deadline of 30 September 2019, so time is still on our side to get both turbines operational by October.

ENERCON confirmed: “Our contractors carried out further testing on their foundation base at turbine 1 and the results were not to ENERCON standards. Due to this, the contractor has initiated works to remove the current base and replace with a base that meets the correct specifications. We will, as a matter of due diligence, undertake further testing at the neighbouring foundation base at turbine 2, which has already passed industry standard testing, to ensure that it is also up to ENERCON standards.”

Earlier this year, UistWind was shortlisted for Best Community Energy Project in the Highlands and Islands Renewable Energy Awards 2019. Part of the selection criteria was about how projects had overcome any barriers they had faced.

At the time, our Project Delivery Manager, Ameena Camps, said: “This project really is an example of triumphing over adversity, with numerous obstacles overcome during the many years of development and, once the project is operational, it will be generating significant benefits to the North Uist community.”

Never a truer word said, Ameena!

This project will be transformational to the economy of North Uist, aiming to generate £2.33million for the community over its lifetime, and we look forward to bringing you the pictures of T1 alongside T2, once the base has been redone to allow the second turbine to be assembled.
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Thanks to you all for your continued support.