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Wind turbines power sewage works                               2/5/13

Ten small-scale wind turbines have been installed at Scottish Water's Stornoway waste water treatment works at Holm Point to help reduce energy costs.

In the utility's first project of its kind in Scotland, the ‘Evance’ turbines are capable of generating 500KW of electricity per day.

Eddie Johnstone, project manager with Scottish Water’s Energy Team, said: "We’re delighted that this project in Stornoway has come to fruition and I hope that this wind project will be first of many similar projects that will enable Scottish Water to reduce its dependency on the grid. We are looking to take advantage of the Western Isles natural wind resource to assist in reducing Scottish Water’s energy costs.
"Scottish Water needs a significant amount of energy to provide services to the people of Scotland. We want to produce more of our own power to reduce our energy bill. We want to do this for the benefit of our customers, while helping to meet Scotland's renewable energy targets.

"Small-scale wind development at our treatment works such as Stornoway is one of the ways we can achieve this. The energy generated here will help to power the treatment works, meaning we need to purchase less energy as a result."

The turbines are part of wider investment programme by Scottish Water Horizons, the utility’s commercial subsidiary, in renewable generation schemes across Scotland.

Scottish Water is also looking at the potential for further renewable energy schemes across its network. It already hosts third party wind development on some sites and is exploring the development of other wind schemes to reduce energy demand.