Where it begins
It starts out at sea.
Atlantic weather comes in over the Minch at nine metres a second and quickens as it climbs the hill. Before a single foundation is poured we put a mast on the ridge and listen for fourteen months.
Community wind Highlands and Islands
Wind, owned by the glen it blows through.
We develop community wind farms and keep other people's turbines turning, from the hill to the Hebrides. Scroll to follow a gust all the way to the village kettle.
Scroll to chase the gust
01 The wind
The wind
Gusts you can see
Watch the grass.
Every gust is a front that crosses the hill in under a minute, and each turbine on the ridge feels it in turn. We site them so they share the good wind and never sit in each other's wake.
Measured, not guessed
Cups and a vane.
The cups on the nacelle roof count the wind and the vane tells the machine which way to face. Nothing turns until there is something worth turning for.
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02 The turbine
The turbine
The tower
Sixty-two metres of steel.
A tapered tower of rolled steel rings, bolted in sections and stood on a concrete foundation the size of a tennis court. The orange band at the foot is so a service door can be found from half a mile off.
The rotor
Three blades, forty metres each.
Glass fibre and epoxy, twisted along their length so every metre bites the wind at the right angle. Each blade pitches on its own, to catch more wind or to spill it.
Facing the wind
Turning to meet it.
Two motors on the yaw ring swing the whole nacelle round. Above rated speed the blades feather and spill the excess. In a storm they stop altogether, and so do we.
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03 Inside the nacelle
Inside the nacelle
One, the main shaft
Slow and enormous.
The rotor turns the main shaft at about twelve revolutions a minute, with the force of a freight train. Each orange-striped bolt has been torqued by hand and marked, so a loose one shows from across the room.
Two, the gearbox
Twelve becomes fifteen hundred.
Three gear stages lift that slow shaft to generator speed. The orange plate is the planet carrier, steering three planet gears around the sun. Caught early, a worn gear is an afternoon's job. Caught late, it is a crane.
Three, brake and coupling
Hold it still.
A steel disc and an orange caliper lock the drive for service. The flexible coupling after it takes up the tiny misalignments of a machine that is never quite still.
Four, the generator
Where wind becomes power.
Magnets spin inside copper windings and 3.6 megawatts leave the nacelle as electricity. At rated wind that is enough for around twelve hundred homes.
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04 Up the blade
Up the blade
Lock it, then climb
One blade to the ground.
We park the rotor with a blade pointing down, pin it, and wait for the wind to drop. Two technicians, two ropes, one radio, and a hard rule about the weather.
Abseil and inspect
Eyes on every metre.
Rain and grit wear the leading edge like sandpaper. A technician is lowered down the blade to look, sand and re-coat before a small chip becomes a lost month.
Home before the weather
Three hours, start to finish.
A typical blade repair takes three hours. The turbine is back on the grid by the afternoon and the record goes straight into your maintenance log.
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05 The grid
The grid
Collector cables
Every turbine, one cable.
Buried cables run across the hill from each turbine to our substation, a metre down and out of sight. Each orange spark is a small packet of the energy that just left a nacelle.
The substation
Down the line.
The substation steps the voltage up and sends it down a pylon line to the glen. We build, own and look after that line too, so there is one number to ring when the lights flicker.
The village
Lights on, kettle on.
By dusk the output is the evening load of the whole glen. Where the wind is strong the windows come on one by one; where it fails, the grid fills the gap. Try it yourself in the next section.
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06 Your turn
Set the wind. Count the lights.
Drag the slider and the blades, the output meter and the village all follow. Push it past 25 m/s and the turbines feather and stop, which is exactly what we want them to do.
Turbines on the hill
- Output
- 0.0MW
- Homes powered
- 0
- Rotor speed
- 0 rpm
Powering the glen
07 Community ownership
Community ownership
The glen first
Offered to neighbours.
Before any investor sees an offer, every household within ten miles can buy in, from £250. The ridge is lit from our side of the glen before anyone else's.
Every roof
A share in every home.
Kinlochmorn Wind Co-operative owns 49 per cent of the ridge. Watch the roofs turn orange as the shares go out, starting at the hall and working out along the lanes.
The money stays
Down the hill, into the hall.
Income rides the track from the ridge to the village. It pays the dividend, then the hall roof, the minibus and the school trips. Last year, a little over four hundred thousand pounds.
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08 Ways to work with us
Three ways in, all of them local.
For neighbours
Community share offer
From £250 a share
- Target return 5.5 per cent a year, paid in March
- One member, one vote at the annual meeting
- Locals-only for the first 90 days
- Withdrawable after three years
For owners
Maintenance contracts
From £4,200 a turbine a year
- Two full inspections a year, rope access included
- Blade care: leading-edge repair and lightning checks
- Gearbox oil analysis every quarter
- 24 hour call-out, on site within four hours
For schools
School visits
Free for Highland schools
- Ninety minutes, up to 45 pupils
- Hard hats, a working nacelle model and a rope demo
- Lesson pack for P5 to S2, with real output data
- Minibus costs covered by the community fund
09 The small print
Built slowly, kept carefully.
- Capacity built
- 0MW
- across eleven sites, from Skye to Shetland
- Turbines serviced
- 0
- by eighteen rope-access technicians
- Co-op shareholders
- 0
- in nine glens, one share one vote
- School visits
- 0
- last year, and every pupil gets a hard hat
10 Get in touch
Ask us anything.
Tell us what you have in mind and a real engineer will write back within two working days.
Thank you. One of our engineers will write back within two working days. Mind the wind on your way out.
- Office
- 14 Harbour Road, Kinlochmorn, Highland IV99 0GF
- Phone
- 01632 960 412
- Hours
- Mon to Fri, 8 to 5. Turbine call-out 24 hours.