Coal Clough Wind Farm is one of the oldest onshore

wind farm A wind farm or wind park, also called a wind power station or wind power plant, is a group of wind turbines in the same location used Wind power, to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundre ...

s in England. The wind farm, which was built for

Scottish Power Scottish Power is a vertically integrated energy company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It is a subsidiary of Spanish utility firm Iberdrola. ScottishPower is the distribution network operator for Central and Southern Scotland, Merseyside, North ...

, produced electricity from originally 24

Vestas Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines that was founded in 1945. The company operates manufacturing plants in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, India, Italy, Romania, the Uni ...

WD34

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

s. It had a total

nameplate capacity Nameplate capacity, also known as the rated capacity, nominal capacity, installed capacity, or maximum effect, is the intended full-load sustained output of a facility such as a power station,

of 9.6 MW of electricity, enough to serve the average needs of 5,500 homes. It is situated near

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

in the parish of

Cliviger Cliviger is a civil parish in the Borough of Burnley, in Lancashire, England. It is situated to the southeast of Burnley, and northwest of Todmorden. According to the 2011 census, the parish has a population of 2,238. Although the whole parish ...

, near Coal Clough Farm, on the edge of Stiperden Moor in the

South Pennines The South Pennines is a region of moorland and hill country in northern England lying towards the southern end of the Pennines. In the west it includes the Rossendale Valley and the West Pennine Moors. It is bounded by the Greater Manchester co ...

. For a few weeks it was the largest wind farm in the UK, until the much larger Penrhyddlan and Llidiartywaun wind farms (now called Llandinam) in

Powys Powys (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh succession of states, successor state, petty kingdom and princi ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

overtook it. It narrowly remained the largest in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

until Coldham opened in Cambridgeshire in November 2005. The record was then taken yet again by

Scout Moor Wind Farm Scout Moor Wind Farm is the second largest onshore wind farm in England. The wind farm, which was built for Peel Wind Power Ltd, produces electricity from 26 Nordex N80 wind turbines. It has a total nameplate capacity of 65 MW of ele ...

to the south west until May 2009 where

Whitelee Wind Farm Whitelee Wind Farm is a windfarm on the Eaglesham moor in Scotland. The main visitor centre is located in East Renfrewshire, but the majority of turbines are located in East Ayrshire and South Lanarkshire. It is the largest on-shore wind farm in ...

took and now holds it with 215 units with a total output capacity of 539 Mw. In 2009 Scottish Power announced plans to replace the existing turbines with eight 2 MW units with an estimated maximum height . After many ups and downs during the years, the announced planning on re-powering the wind farm was soon granted and work quickly began onsite mid 2014 to early 2015. It involved the decommissioning & removal of the existing 24 turbines, the laying of new cabling and drainage, removal of current WD34 bases and placement of new foundations, upgrading/building service roads, substation installation, the erection of the newer & more efficient turbines you see in full operation today etc. The new and improved Coal Clough Wind Farm is set to be in operation for its full 25 years "Usefulness" life span, and will then be decommissioned and removed from site to be either refurbished and sold on to businesses worldwide or sent to be recycled.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coal Clough Wind Farm Power stations in North West England Wind farms in England Burnley