Crystal Rig Wind Farm is an operational onshore wind farm located on the

Lammermuir Hills The Lammermuirs are a range of hills in southern Scotland, forming a natural boundary between East Lothian and the Borders. The name "Lammermuir" comes from the Old English ''lambra mōr'', meaning "moorland of the lambs". Geology The Lammer ...

in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothi ...

region of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. When phase 1 was completed in May 2004 it was the largest wind farm in Scotland. As a result of 3 extensions it is currently the second largest wind farm in the UK, in terms of nameplate capacity and one of the top five largest in number of turbines. The wind farm was developed and is owned by Fred. Olsen Renewables Ltd. part of the Fred. Olsen Group and is managed by Natural Power, another member of the Fred Olsen group. Turbine maintenance and service is carried out by technicians from

Nordex SE Nordex SE is a European company that designs, sells and manufactures wind turbines. The company's headquarters is located in the German city of Rostock while management is situated in Hamburg. Production takes place in Rostock as well as in China ...

and

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...

. Since the completion of Crystal Rig 2 in 2010, Siemens have based their main service centre for all wind farms in the South East with Siemens turbines in use at the turbine control centre at Crystal Rig whose offices are shared with Natural Power. This enables Siemens technicians with easy access to all 60 turbines on site and to the nearby wind farms of Aikengall 2, Carcant, Toddleburn and Black Hill wind farms. Nordex base their service centre in

Loanhead Loanhead is a town in Midlothian, Scotland, in a commuter belt to the south of Edinburgh, and close to Roslin, Bonnyrigg and Dalkeith. The town was built on coal and oil shale mining, and the paper industries. History Loanhead was a tiny villag ...

which is based half way between Crystal Rig 1/1A and Bowbeat Wind Farm where 24 Nordex N60 Turbines fall on the

Moorfoot Hills The Moorfoot Hills are a range of hills south of Edinburgh in east central Scotland, one of the ranges which collectively form the Southern Uplands. Etymology The name ''Moorfoot'' was recorded as ''Morthwait'' in 1142. The second element is O ...

. The farm was built in several stages: Crystal Rig: Completed in May 2004 it consists of 20 Nordex N80 turbines producing a maximum of 50 MW. Crystal Rig 1a: An extension completed in May 2007 adding a further 5 N80 turbines to increase the maximum to 62.5 MW. Crystal Rig 2 & 2a: Both completed in September 2010 they consist of 60 Siemens SWT-2.3 turbines in total capable of producing 138 MW. Crystal Rig III: Six additional Siemens 2.3 MW turbines capable of producing 13.8 MW, completed in 2016. Crystal Rig IV: A planned extension of an additional 11 turbines which will bring the wind farm's capacity total up to 262.5 MW. Crystal Rig 1 and 1a are connected to the Scottish Power Transmission network at the

Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and gave its name to an ecc ...

substation 10 km to the north. A dedicated substation was built on site for the connection of Crystal Rig 2 and 2a.

References

External links

{{Wind power in the United Kingdom Wind farms in Scotland