Castlemilk Wind Turbine

Cathkin Braes will soon be home to the world’s first community-operated, stealth technology, wind turbine which will generate hundreds of thousands of pounds for local community groups.

 

Castlemilk and Carmunnock Community Wind Farm Trust are in the final stages of leasing the land from Glasgow City Council. The turbine will be erected next year, will generate £100,000 of income annually and, when the loan for the project is paid off in 10 years, this will rise to at least £450,000.

They have worked tirelessly for six years to get to this stage and feel their achievement could be a blueprint for future wind power throughout the world. Off their own backs, they have raised a staggering £300,000 for the project.

Margo Smith, the Trust’s driving force, told the LOCAL NEWS: ‘Sheer determination has got us to where we are now. I think most people thought ‘we will believe it when we see it’. All along, we have wanted to help community groups and this aim has really kept us going.’

The 2 megawatt stealth turbine employs state of the art technology developed in conjunction with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to be invisible to radar. The use of this technology for the turbine arose from initial rejection of the turbine idea by Glasgow airport because the model planned would have interfered with the airport’s radar. Margo scoured the world to find a suitable material to build a turbine that would not interfere with radar and she found it in the stealth technology developed by the MoD.

The turbine will feed into the Castlemilk grid generating enough energy to power 1,000 homes – the equivalent of Carmunnock twice over.

The turbine has a 25 year life span and can be effective at low wind speeds.

Ken McCready, Chair of the Board of the Trust said: ‘We have overcome a lot of hurdles and the difficult part has been in getting to this point. We have undertaken practically every survey known to man to ensure suitability.’  Contact Margo on 0141 630 2235 or email margo.smith@gsera.org.uk .