Fife Council has connected its wind turbine development to the National Grid.

The local authority has now reached the final milestone of its scheme at Lower Melville Wood recycling/resource recovery facility near Ladybank.

With final commissioning and testing of the turbine now complete, the development is expected to generate 800,000kWh of power per year, enough electricity for over 200 homes.

The turbine will be managed by the council's environmental and resource management company, Resource Efficient Solutions, and is the local authorities first commercial scale turbine structure.


Cllr John Wincott said: "This turbine is the latest in a series of renewable energy generation projects that Fife Council have undertaken and is a valuable addition to our portfolio. We already have in place clean energy generation from garden and food waste at our Anaerobic Digester, and from landfill gas. We also have solar photovoltaic at a number of locations, so this wind turbine is a logical progression for the Council.

"Because this is green energy, it will save the equivalent of 450 tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum that would have been produced by the burning of fossil fuels. It will also generate an income for the Council of up to £100,000 per annum from feed in tariff and sales of electricity, something that is very welcome given the budget challenges faced by the Council over the coming years."

(LM/MH)