Scottish firm Forsyth of Denny has started decommissioning ScottishPower Renewables Hagshaw Hill wind farm after 30 years of operation.
Work is currently under way to disassemble the turbines and prepare the land for the repowering of Scotland’s first commercial wind farm.
The decommissioning process will continue over the summer and into early autumn, with delivery of the first new turbine components expected in May 2024.
The new site should be fully operational by early 2025, the developer said.
Operational since 1995, Hagshaw Hill in South Lanarkshire was at the forefront of wind energy production in Scotland, generating more than 895MWh over its 28-year lifespan.
Now the 16MW site is about to undergo a process of repowering, becoming home to 14 new turbines with a combined capacity of over 79MW.
Once complete, the site will be capable of producing around five times the amount of clean, green energy than before, from just over half the number of turbines.
The Hagshaw Hill repowering project is part of ScottishPower Renewables’ wider ambition to maximise the efficiency of its existing sites by replacing older turbines with new, more powerful and efficient models.
ScottishPower Renewables onshore managing director Barry Carruthers said: “A number of our wind farms, like many across the UK, are starting to come to the end of their operational life.
“But repowering allows us to make these windfarms, sites we know can deliver the green, zero carbon electricity we need to reach Net Zero, more efficient and maximise the power we are getting from them.
“Hagshaw Hill is a great example of this. We’ve worked in this area for almost 30 years, we know how good this site is and now we’ll be able to produce enough electricity to power almost 61,000 homes each year – almost half the homes in South Lanarkshire.
“Repowering is critical to achieving net zero ambitions, but we need to be able to do it faster than current legislation allows.
“We know these sites, we know how to look after them and we know how much more they can deliver for the UK if we can repower them fast enough.”