Scout Moor Wind Power Plant is the largest onshore wind farm in England. The wind farm, which was built for Peel Wind Power Ltd, produces electricity from 26 Nordex N80 wind turbines. It has a total nameplate capacity of 65 MW of electricity, providing 154,000 MW·h per year; enough to serve the average needs of 40,000 homes. The site occupies 1,347 acres (545 ha) of open moorland between Edenfield, Rawtenstall and Rochdale, and is split between the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale in northern Greater Manchester and the Borough of Rossendale in south-eastern Lancashire. The turbines are visible from as far away as south Manchester, 15–20 miles (24–32 km) away.

A protest group was formed to resist the proposed construction, and attracted support from the botanist and environmental campaigner David Bellamy. Despite the opposition, planning permission was granted in 2005 and construction began in 2007. Although work on the project was hampered by harsh weather, difficult terrain, and previous mining activity, the wind farm was officially opened on 25 September 2008 after "years of controversy", at a cost of £50 million. In May 2007, plans were announced for a second wind power project on the moors above Haslingden, on the opposite side of the Rossendale Valley.

Scout Moor Wind Power Plant Construction

The detailed design for the Scout Moor Wind Power Plant project was completed during summer 2006 and construction began in January 2007. The first task was to build a stable access road, but the moor was covered in a layer of peat with a low load-bearing capacity. The whole area had also been subjected to extensive coal mining during the 19th and early 20th centuries, so there was a potential for subsidence. To address these problems, the mining voids were grouted and a floating road was constructed, using a complex system of geotextiles and geogrids to prevent the road from sinking. This was achieved by laying a crushed-gravel base, reinforced with polyester and polypropylene grids, to bridge any potential mine voids and ensure that the weak shear strength of the subsoil was exceeded by the base course material. The wind turbines arrived at Scout Moor in parts, transported by large goods vehicles along the M66 motorway to Edenfield as part of a 76-day long convoy of delivery.

The weather constrained the wind farm's construction for the teams from contractor McNicholas and German turbine supplier Nordex. During the final stages, the project manager for McNicholas was quoted as saying:

The weather has undoubtedly been the single biggest challenge we have faced up here. We have worked with wind speeds well in excess of 120mph and temperatures as low as minus 12 degrees Celsius, which is more like minus 25 with the wind-chill factor. I’ve worked on a lot of wind farm construction projects but the adverse conditions have made this one of the most difficult ... We have spent £30,000 on personal protective equipment for the workers. Keeping them warm, fed and moving in these conditions is a massive man management project, but we did it.

The Scout Moor wind farm, which stretches across nearly 2 miles (3.2 km) of open moorland between Edenfield, Rawtenstall and Rochdale, the largest onshore wind farm in England, was officially opened on 25 September 2008. As of 26 August 2008, 21 of 26 turbines had been commissioned and 4,000 MW·h of electricity had been exported to the National Grid. The turbines are visible from south Manchester, 15–20 miles (24–32 km) away, and are expected to produce enough electricity to meet the needs of 40,000 average homes. Scout Moor has the capacity to produce a total of 65 MW, compared with the 90 MW capacity of Kentish Flats, the United Kingdom's largest offshore wind farm. The total cost of the Scout Moor project was £50 million, but Peel Holdings expect the turbines to be in operation for at least 25 years. Since its opening, the wind farm "has become a real tourist attraction"; a calendar showing photographs of the wind farm's construction has been featured in local news stories.

Future plans of Scout Moor Wind Power Plant

Over the lifetime of the wind farm, Peel Holdings' energy subsidiary, Peel Wind Power Ltd, will provide up to £500,000 to help landowners create biodiverse areas on the land surrounding the moor. A prime target habitat envisaged to be enhanced and re-created under the Habitat Enhancement Plan is upland blanket bog and important habitats for skylarks and wading birds on the moorland fringe. To receive funding, landowners within an identified area will need to apply to a panel made up of representatives from Peel, the local authorities and independent ecological experts. This panel will meet regularly throughout the year.

Peel Wind Power are members of RenewableUK and state in their member's profile that they are actively seeking new opportunities in the renewable energy sector. In November 2008, the company announced a two-year agreement to look at developing wind farms on land owned by UK Coal. If the 14 sites encompassed by the agreement were successfully developed, they would have the potential for 54 wind turbines generating up to 133 megawatts of power. Peel Energy director Steven Underwood said: "This agreement is an important step for Peel Energy, significantly expanding its onshore pipeline and gaining access to some of the UK's best potential wind farm locations." The Peel group holds a 28% stake in UK Coal.

At a private meeting held in May 2007 between developers and invited local councillors, plans were put forward for another large wind farm consisting of 24 turbines on the moors above nearby Haslingden, spanning Thirteen Stone Hill and Oswaldtwistle Moor. Following the meeting Catherine Pilling, a Rossendale Liberal Democrat councillor, expressed her view that the natural beauty of the Rossendale Valley was under threat as it was increasingly being targeted by wind farm developers. "Our party is very much in favour of renewable energy," she said, "but Rossendale is an area of outstanding beauty, and you have to ask: Would they be building a similar thing in the Lake District?" Rossendale Borough Council leader Duncan Ruddick representing the electoral ward of Worsley in Rossendale, the proposed site of the new wind farm, said he was against wind farms and would be campaigning against it and speaking at the Development Control committee when it came. The leader of the Labour local councillors was also opposed to the plan, saying that he was concerned about the size of the turbines and that the visual impact on the "beautiful West Pennine Moors" would be devastating. Planning permission for the development was granted by Hyndburn Council in March 2010.

Scout Moor Wind Power Plant Specifications

Capacity factor

As the figures given in the table above were published before the turbines had been operational for a full year they are projected rather than recorded figures. Wind speed is not constant, therefore, a wind farm's annual energy production never achieves the sum of the generator nameplate ratings multiplied by the total hours in a year. The ratio of actual productivity in a year to this theoretical maximum is called the capacity factor. Typical capacity factors are 20–40%, with values at the upper end of the range achieved on particularly favourable sites. The expected capacity factor for Scout Moor Wind Farm, calculated from the company's projected figures, is 27%.