27th Jul 2005 11:44
Scottish & Southern Energy PLC27 July 2005 UK Minister for Energy Opens Artfield Fell Wind Farm Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks MP today officially opened Scottish and SouthernEnergy's 20MW (megawatt) wind farm at Artfield Fell in Dumfries and Galloway. The wind farm, which is situated 10 miles north east of Stranraer and consistsof fifteen turbines, will produce enough energy to power around 15,000 homes. Itcost £16m to develop. Artfield Fell is SSE's third operational wind farm, and takes the total capacityof the company's wind farms to 42MW. The company expects to complete theconstruction of the Hadyard Hill wind farm in South Ayrshire (120MW) during thisfinancial year and is in the process of applying for consent to develop sevenother wind farms in Scotland, with a total capacity of almost 450MW. In addition, SSE announced on 6 July plans to enter into a joint venture withViking Energy to develop what would be the world's largest community-backed windfarm, with a capacity of up to 600MW, on the Shetland Islands. The company also announced on 30 June, with BP, ConocoPhillips and Shell plansto commence engineering design of the world's first industrial scale project togenerate 'carbon free' electricity from hydrogen at Peterhead in North EastScotland. Mr Wicks said: "I welcome this latest development from a company with a long history ofinvolvement in hydro generation, and now wind energy. SSE is also supporting anddeveloping other renewable energy sources such as deep water offshore windfarms, tidal energy, solar power and biomass generation. This demonstrates ourincentives are achieving their desired effect of spurring companies to look atall renewable energy possibilities." Ian Marchant, Chief Executive of SSE, said: "Artfield Fell is the first of our wind farms which we have taken fromconception to delivery. Its completion marks an important step forward in ourplans to have around 1,000MW of generation capacity qualifying for RenewableObligation Certificates by 2008. I am particularly grateful for the constructive approach to the developmentadopted by Dumfries and Galloway Council and by the local community inWigtownshire. Our priority now is to complete the construction of the HadyardHill wind farm and to make a further contribution to the achievement ofScotland's and the UK's renewable energy targets." Enquiries to: Scottish and Southern EnergyAlan Young, Director of Corporate Communications 0870 900 0410Denis Kerby Investor and Media Relations Manager 0870 900 0410 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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