Renewable Energy in the Solway

Currently there is one site generating renewable energy in the Solway, the wind farm at Robin Rigg. This site is approximately 14 km from the nearest land at Balcary Point.

The initial application for the development was submitted in 2002 and the plant began operation 8 years later in 2010.

It was comprised of 60, 3MW turbines each measuring 125m to the tip of the blades. In total, when built, it had a nameplate capacity of 180MW. This is roughly enough to power 117,000 homes (over 1.5 times the number of homes in Dumfries and Galloway) and offset around 230,000 tonnes in CO2 emissions each year.

Although, initially made up of 60 turbines in 2015 two of them have been removed. This happened because they had become unstable due to the underlying condition of the seabed. However, by the end of 2016 work had been completed on the remaining turbines to ensure that the turbines will remain operational for the foreseeable future.

The power generated by the windfarm is gathered at offshore substations via cables running under the sea. It is then transported on to the local power grid via two 132kV power lines, which run ashore near Seaton in Cumbria. It is then carried approximately a further 2km onshore to the substation.