GREL - The Dancing Ladies

Since the turbines were installed in 2003, they have proven to be the mainstay of income generation for the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust. The three turbines produce a total of 675 kW maximum capacity and this power is exported directly to the national grid. They fully paid for themselves of loans, grants and share issues since March 2009, and therefore any monies generated by the turbines can be passed straight on to the trust.

The turbines are serviced twice in year, each turbine receiving both a Minor and a major service. With service regime, we hope to maintain maximum efficiency and production of the turbines for as long as possible -- any service issues found dealt with immediately, and Vestas have proven to be the extremely dependable service organisation.

Since 2008 it has been possible to remotely monitor, and in some situations remotely restart, the turbines from my PC at home. This has proven to be an invaluable to allowing frequent checks of the turbines and hopefully early warning of any significant issues from my office where I'm typing this. I can see 213 revolving slowly in a South Easterly wind, and it is extremely satisfying to remotely restart, turbine 3 miles away at to see it slowly start out the window. I should say that remotely restarted turbines is an infrequent event. If the turbine it has stopped. It is much safer to visit the turbines to absolutelyensure  that the error is cleared, prior to restart

The turbines have not been without their dramas, we live in a part of the world, where during the winter months it is not uncommon to have extremely stormy conditions. We've had lightning strikes, which caused a tremendous amount of damage to one turbine in particular, a roof panel blown off an extreme winter conditions had a major substation failure. The turbines have however proven to be extremely durable, and the V27, renowned for its comparatively low-tech approach, was an excellent choice for Gigha.

There were concerns at the design and planning stage of the visual impact of the three turbines at the south end of Gigha. I may be biased, but I feel the turbines actually add to our skyline, rather than detracting from it. There is a certain Majesty about the turbines, and particularly when you stand close by then, they set an interesting counterpoint to the fantastic views to the west, across the Islay and Jura. It's also interesting to note that the land all around the turbines is still farmed. The turbines themselves don't appear to have had any direct impact on agriculture of the south end of the island, and quite often. When I visit the turbines and fighting my way through stirks and sheep, indeed T2 is often used as shelter of feeding stirks.

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