The Project
The Urlar Estate is an upland estate situated on the hills to the South of the Tay valley near Kenmore and Aberfeldy. The landowner applied for and obtained planning permission for these wind turbines in 2011 with the help of RM Energy, a Perth-based medium-scale wind turbine specialist.
Sharenergy is a Shrewsbury-based co-operative that helps community groups to establish community owned renewable energy Societies. Sharenergy started as a spin-off from Energy4All, a not-for-profit company that in turn owes its origin to the Baywind community wind Co-operative in Cumbria. Sharenergy has an excellent track record in supporting successful community renewable energy projects in Scotland and beyond.
Sharenergy and the landowners were introduced through RM Energy and began working on development of the Society in 2014.
Heartland Community Wind
Heartland Community Wind Limited was incorporated and registered with the UK Financial Conduct Authority as a Community Benefit Society number 7067 on 19 January 2015. The Society was set up with 3 founding Directors. All subsequent Directors have been elected from among the membership. The Society is completely independent of Urlar Estate, Sharenergy and RM Energy.
The Society’s Rules are based on Co-operative UK’s Model Rules for a Community Benefit Society.
The Site
The turbines are situated on the saddle between two hills Meall Greigh and Meall a’ Choire Chreagaich in an exposed site at 530m (1740ft) above sea level. The site is a heather-covered grouse moor some 1600m (1 mile) from the nearest dwelling and well sited to avoid visibility from Loch Tay, Kenmore or Taymouth Castle.
The turbines have full current planning permission from Perth & Kinross Council.
The Wind Resource
The figures in this document are based on a Wind Resource Assessment carried out by Digital Engineering. This uses a best-of-breed digital model to estimate wind conditions on the site, yielding a predicted 20 year average yield of 995 MWh/yr. This figure is an energy output prediction, which takes account of losses in the system.
The Turbines
The Society has two WTN 250kW turbines. The turbines have a hub height of 30m and a blade length of 15m, giving a tip height of 45m.
WTN have been manufacturing turbines since 1986 and there are over 200 WTN machines of this model currently working worldwide, with 80 operational in the UK. The turbines are made by a family firm in Northern Germany to a well-established design that has been proven over more than 20 years operation. More documents regarding the turbine are available on the project website.
The turbine uses solid and well-proven technology. This is reflected in high uptime figures across the turbine fleet. The turbine system is supplied and installed with a 5-year product warranty from WTN. The warranty is validated with a commitment to a 5-year Service and Maintenance contract, which in turn introduces a 5 year 95% operational uptime guarantee from WTN. Penalty payments are made on the basis of lost Feed-in Tariff and export income. Non-consumable parts are replaced at the owners expense at the end of the 5- year warranty.
Electricity Sales
The electricity produced by the turbines is all exported into the local network. The Society seeks to maximize income by obtaining quotes from the leading buyers of renewable electricity for power purchase. In addition the Society receives the Feed-in Tariff. Preliminary accreditation for the Feed-in Tariff was obtained in December 2014 in order to assure that the rate of Feed-in Tariff then in force will apply for this project. Preliminary Accreditation holds the current rate for 12 months and the turbine had to be generating before the end of 2015 in order to receive this rate.
Community Fund
The Society has created a Community Fund, set at a minimum of £5000/yr, which is twice the commercial ‘best practice’ level. This Fund will increase with turbine performance. The Fund will be distributed by a local Trust and will aim to fund activities not currently within the remit of other commercial Wind funds.
From 2017-2020 the fund was used to assist young people from the Aberfeldy area with their further and higher education. The fund enabled five Bursaries at Perth UHI College of £1,000 each to be used towards studying costs. Only students who live in the Aberfeldy area were eligible for the bursaries, and they were awarded based on merit and across subject areas. The decision on who received the bursaries was made annually by the college jointly with the Directors of the Society. In 2022, Heartland were pleased to agree a donation of £15,000 to the Healthiest Town Aberfeldy to be split into three payments of £5,000 per year in 2022,2023 and 2024. As a part of healthiesttown.org, Healthiest Town Aberfeldy run events and provide support and advice on affordable, healthy food, sustainability and healthy living.