Member Article

£16m Cumbrian wind farm gets go-ahead

Banks Renewables has got the go-ahead to build its first wind farm in Cumbria, thanks to a £16 million funding agreement with the Co-operative Bank.

Banks Renewables, part of the Banks Group, will now begin work on the Armistead Wind Farm which will be located on land near the village of Old Hutton in South Cumbria. The site, to the east of the M6 between junctions 36 and 37 will have an installed capacity of 12.3MW, which is enough to meet the needs of around 6,800 homes.

The creation of the wind farm will also avoid the release of around 13,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide, which would have been resulted from generating the same amount of evergy by non-renewable means.

The project will also create a number of new jobs locally, as well as commercial opportunities for local firms and a community benefits fund worth over £300,000 across the 25 year lifespan of the project.

Group commercial director at the Banks Group Neil Brown believes that the the scheme gives further strength to Banks’ reputation within the onshore wind industry, which he is now keen to expand further.

He commented: “We are confident that other sites from our portfolio of developing wind schemes across the north of England and Scotland will be moving forward in the near future.

“Utilising onshore wind farms like Armistead to update the UK’s power infrastructure today is already helping to address the energy challenges that we know the 21st century will bring, and we’re very pleased that The Co-operative Bank is once again backing both our robust business model and our planning expertise in realising wind farm proposals.”

James Sutcliffe, senior manager at The Co-operative Bank, adds: “We’re extremely pleased to be increasing our support for Banks Renewables and to be helping its ambitious strategy to develop more renewable energy schemes.

“We believe medium scale renewables projects such as these can make a significant contribution to the country’s future energy mix and help with the required transition to a low carbon economy, whilst bringing significant benefits to the local community at the same time.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .