Boyndie wind farm is located on a former World War II airfield around 2 km inland from the north coast of Aberdeenshire, between Portsoy and Banff. The land at the airfield is flat and well drained. Many of the airfield runways and access tracks are still intact, providing excellent access to the site. After carrying out, and submitting extensive environmental assessment, planning permission was granted in July 2004 by the Aberdeenshire Council for the first phase of the project consisting of 7 turbines and a single turbine extension was added which was operational in 2010.
The wind farm has a total of 8 turbines and can generate up to 16.65 MW of electricity. That is enough clean, green energy to supply around 9,100 homes – roughly equal to all the homes in Banff, Whitehills, Portsoy and all the nearby rural areas.
The wind farm is owned and operated by Boyndie Wind Energy Limited (BWEL), part of the Falck Renewables Group. In March 2014, CII Holdco Ltd, part of Copenhagen Infrastructure I K/S, acquired 49% of BWEL from the Falck Renewables Group. The wind farm began generating electricity in June 2006. The turbines were built and installed by the German company Enercon GmbH.
The turbines are Enercon E-70 E4 which is a variable pitch and variable speed machine which directly drives an electric generator (ie has no gearbox). The rotor diameter is 71 m and the height of the tower is 64 m.
The turbines are maintained under a long term contract with Enercon. Each turbine is monitored 24 hours a day seven days a week and any maintenance is carried out by specially trained and qualified technicians. The availability of the project is warranted by Enercon and the safe, efficient, reliable and clean generation of electricity is a fundamental requirement under our contract with Enercon.
The wind turbines start generating electricity at wind speeds of about 3 m/s and generate their maximum output at 13 m/s. but will continue to generate safely at wind speeds to 28 m/s.