Mill Rig
Our plans to to build some of the UK’s most effective onshore wind turbines at Mill Rig Wind Farm, near Darvel in East Ayrshire were granted consent in September 2022. Straddling the South Lanarkshire and East Ayrshire border, Mill Rig will play host to six powerful wind turbines with an installed generation capacity of around 36MW – enough to meet the electricity needs of all the households in a town around the size of East Kilbride.
Our plan includes:
- 6 turbines with maximum tip heights of up to 250m
- Up to 36MW generation capacity – enough to power over 21,000 homes with green electricity*
- 30 years life span
Key project benefits
Homes provided with renewable electricity annually
Equivalent number of petrol cars taken off the road annually
Total community benefits fund
Potential business rates value over the lifetime of the project
Scottish construction investment
Estimated value of local contracts (within 60km of the site)
Jobs directly supported
Connect2Renewables Fund for the first five years of the project
Tonnes of CO2 saved every year
Community updates and public consultation webinars
As the project has evolved through the pre-application process, we delivered two sets of online events. You can view our presentations, survey results and the questions and answers from our sessions. You can still direct questions to the project team and sign up for project updates using the form below. Please contact the team if you have any comments or would like to arrange a one to one session to discuss any aspect of the project.
Initial themes from our consultation
- The community are supportive of renewable energy
- Community councils are keen to work with Banks Renewables to develop the project sensitively. Each have active community development plans that can be supported by the project
- Local people want to support renewable energy and climate action
- Community members want us to carefully consider the impact on wildlife, biodiversity and the long-term effects of a development
- Local people want investment in local jobs
Local people want the impact of the community benefit fund to be proximate to the wind farm, and not based on borders. - Sensitive consideration should be given to local water supplies, properties and roads during construction
What is happening?
Throughout the life of the Mill Rig Wind Farm project we want to work together with your local community to ensure that you are kept informed about what we are doing and you have plenty of opportunities to provide feedback.
Our approach
Banks Renewables is part of the Banks Group and we provide renewable energy to help meet society’s demand for clean green electricity in a sustainable and considerate way. Development with care is at the heart of our way of working. It means respect and consideration for the environment, your local community, our employees and our business partners throughout the lifetime of our projects.
How can I get involved?
We really want to hear your views on the Mill Rig Wind Farm project. If you have any question in relation to the project please get in touch using the form below.
Mill Rig – Sign up
"*" indicates required fields
Local community fund
The Mill Rig wind farm proposal is committed to providing £5,000 per MW for your local community over the lifetime of the project. This could be up to £180k per year for your local community** each year the wind farm is operational. This fund will be built to help deliver on the needs and aspirations of your local community. We will work in partnership with local people to find out the best way for this fund to be used.
Here are some examples of our projects in South Lanarkshire showing how we have worked together with local people to deliver benefits that meets the needs of the community.
Economic benefits
We will work with local councils to maximise the social, economic and environmental benefit of the development to your local area. We are committed to delivering as high as percentage as possible of the contracted construction value to local companies in order to maximise the local economic benefits throughout the life of the wind farm.
Grid connection
In order to connect the Mill Rig Wind Farm to the National Grid, Scottish Power Energy Networks current proposal is to take an underground line along the pathway indicated in the map.
*Using Govt / BEIS approved methodology
**On the basis of up to 36MW operation