Allt Dearg Community Wind Farm is different to most commercial wind farms in Argyll as it is locally owned and controlled by a unique partnership of local land owners, specialist investors and the Ardrishaig Community. Each turbine tower is 55m tall from the ground to the hub centre of the nacelle (the box on top of the tower which houses the generator and gearbox). The swept diameter of the blade
s is 52m, and swept area is 2,124 m square. The distance from ground to the blade tip when it is vertical, is 81m. There are around 4,000 V52 turbines already in operation worldwide. The highest point on the Allt Dearg site is 477m from sea level. Each turbine can produce 850kW of power at full output, and after cable losses the combined site output is just under 10MW. Under normal circumstances this is enough to satisfy the electrical power demands of Ardrishaig, Lochgilphead and the surrounding area. Allt Dearg is a very windy site, with average wind speeds well above 9 m/s (20mph); this means that the projected output of the site is relatively high, with an estimated capacity factor in excess of 40%. The capacity factor is the amount of power produced relative to the theoretical maximum, if the perfect wind blew 24 hours a day for 365 days of the year, and there was no production time lost to equipment maintenance or grid failures, in theory we could produce 10MW X 24 hours X 365 = 87,600 MW hours. In practice we expect to produce around 35,000 MW hours per year, as we do not have a constantly perfect wind, and the turbines require to be shut down occasionally for routine maintenance. The wind turbines start producing power in wind speeds of about 4 m/s (9mph) and shut down in winds above 25 m/s (56mph). The optimal power generation is around 16 m/s (35mph). The normal rotor speed is 26 rpm.
