Beinn an Tuirc wind farm is a

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 to produce electricity. Wind farms vary in size from a small number of turbines to several hundred wind turb ...

Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. The site has 46 turbines with a total generating capacity of 30.36 MW, with each unit being a Vestas V47-660, with each turbine producing 660 kW, and is operated by ScottishPower. It was commissioned in 2001 and started operation in 2002. It cost £21 million to build. The turbines were built by Danish company

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 Un ...

, which specializes in their manufacture. It is 10 miles (16 kilometres) north of Campbeltown on the slopes of the Beinn an Tuirc, the highest hill on the

Kintyre Kintyre ( gd, Cinn Tìre, ) is a peninsula in western Scotland, in the southwest of Argyll and Bute. The peninsula stretches about , from the Mull of Kintyre in the south to East and West Loch Tarbert in the north. The region immediately nor ...

peninsula. ScottishPower was awarded a

Queen's Award for Enterprise The Queen's Awards for Enterprise is an awards programme for British businesses and other organizations who excel at international trade, innovation, sustainable development or promoting opportunity (through social mobility). They are the highest ...

in 2006 for constructing Beinn an Tuirc and Black Law wind farms with a "collaborative and responsible approach". This referred to the company's practice of taking into account environmental concerns and the wishes of the local community in the wind farms' construction. One of the V47 turbines suffered a catastrophic failure in November 2007 when a brake problem led to the tower being bent in two. This was the first incident of an operational turbine tower collapsing in the UK. The farm was closed as a precaution, but soon reopened. In an unusual move, ScottishPower has offered local rangers £30 for every

mountain hare The mountain hare (''Lepus timidus''), also known as blue hare, tundra hare, variable hare, white hare, snow hare, alpine hare, and Irish hare, is a Palearctic hare that is largely adapted to polar and mountainous habitats. Evolution The mount ...

they hand over. The idea is to re-introduce this species to an area near to the wind farm in an attempt to lure

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known birds of ...

s away from the turbines. The

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a charitable organisation registered in England and Wales and in Scotland. It was founded in 1889. It works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment thr ...

said, "ScottishPower's approach in creating this habitat that takes into account local biodiversity is to be welcomed."

References

{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Argyll and Bute Wind farms in Scotland 2002 establishments in Scotland Kintyre