Paul´s Hill Wind Farm Photostory

INTRODUCTION

The Paul's Hill wind farm - based 23 km southwest of Elgin on Carn Shalag and Carm na Dubh-clais - opened in May 2006 after developers Natural Power started work on the project in January 2004. 24 turbines with a capacity of 56 MW, a metering building and two anemometer masts have been installed on the carefully selected site. The site includes grid connection and road infrastructure and the following story takes you on a journey from the very foundations of the project, through the construction of Paul's Hill, to the finished article.

FOUNDATIONS

To set the process in motion the turbine site is cleared and levelled using excavators. During the next step concrete is laid as a base and then pumped into steel lattice frames which form the foundation. The site is then backfilled in sympathy with its surroundings and awaits delivery of the turbine parts where they are assembled on site.

Fig 1.0: Excavation of the turbine site.
Fig 2.0: Laying the first layer of concrete.

Fig 3.0: Concrete being pumped into the steel lattice to create the foundations.
Fig 4.0: The completed turbine foundations after backfilling.

TURBINE TRANSPORT

Each of the 24 turbines are built in large sections with the main body providing support for the blades and nacelle. They all needed to be transported from Invergordon port, where they were shipped to upon completion, along the A96 and through the Moray countryside to their position 410m above the coast on Paul's Hill. Given the size of the turbines' constituent parts, public roads required upgrade and construction of 13km of site tracks was needed for delivery and maintenance.

Fig 5.0: Site roads are built for installation and maintenance.
Fig 6.0: One of the nacelles en-route to Paul’s Hill.

Fig 7.0: Trailers are unhitched and steered independently to manoeuvre tight corners
Fig 8.0: The long haul – each of the blades makes their way to Paul’s Hill.

TURBINE CONSTRUCTION

Software modelling was used to determine how the wind will flow across the topography and every turbine is positioned to take advantage of this in order to extract maximum efficiency. Heavy lift cranes rated at 400 tonnes were used to position the tower - which comes in 2 pieces - before the nacelle is secured on top. With all this in position, the blades are secured to the hub while they remain on the ground and then they too are lifted and married with the nacelle to complete the structure. Medium and low voltage as well as telemetry cabling was installed to carry electricity to the grid and monitor the turbines.

Fig 9.0: Heavy lift crane positions 45 tonnes of turbine tower.
Fig 10.0: The tower is secured to its foundations.

Fig 11.0: A blade is lifted from its position on the low-loader.
Fig 12.0: The turbine blades and hub are lifted to marry with the nacelle.

COMPLETED WIND FARM

It takes just eight days to go from turbine erection to electricity generation and each one of the turbines - measuring 100 metres from ground level to blade tip - has an output of 2.3 MW. On the 9th May 2006, freshly appointed Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alistair Darling, on his first official engagement, opened the Paul's Hill wind farm which has the capacity to provide clean electricity capable of powering an estimated 30000 homes.

Fig 13.0: Paul’s Hill snowscape – before production
Fig 14.0: The turbines generating electricity for the national grid.

Fig 15.0: School children visit Paul’s Hill wind farm.
Fig 16.0: The sun sets over Morayshire.

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