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Black Law Wind Farm

Wind farms in Scotland
Black Law Wind Farm geograph.org.uk 166862
Black Law Wind Farm geograph.org.uk 166862

The 54-turbine Black Law Wind Farm has a total capacity of 124 megawatts (MW). The first phase of 42 turbines was the largest sufficient to meet the average electricity needs of 70,000 homes each year - or a town the size of Paisley - and is estimated to save around 200,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions a year.The £90 million wind farm is located near Climpy in South Lanarkshire and has been built on an old opencast coalmine site which was completely restored to shallow wetlands during the construction programme. It employs seven permanent staff on site and created 200 jobs during construction. Phase 1 was the first built in 2005, consisting of 42 turbines, which at the time was the largest onshore wind farm in the UK. Phase 2 added another 12 turbines in 2006, with subsequent extensions in 2017 bringing the total turbine count to 88.The project has received wide recognition for its contribution to environmental objectives, including praise from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, who said that the scheme was not only improving the landscape in a derelict opencast mining site, but also benefiting a range of wildlife in the area, with an extensive habitat management projects covering over 14 square kilometres.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Black Law Wind Farm (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

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Latitude Longitude
N 55.766944444444 ° E -3.7388888888889 °
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South Lanarkshire



Scotland, United Kingdom
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Black Law Wind Farm geograph.org.uk 166862
Black Law Wind Farm geograph.org.uk 166862
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Nearby Places

Wilsontown Ironworks
Wilsontown Ironworks

The ruins of the Wilsontown Ironworks are located near the village of Forth in Lanarkshire in Scotland, approximately 23 miles (37 km) to the south east of Glasgow. The works were founded by the three Wilson brothers in 1779, and operated until 1842. The works had two blast furnaces, and in 1790 a forge was added. Later a rolling and slitting mill and additional forging hammers were installed. This increased the capacity of the works to 40 long tons (41 t) of manufactured iron per week. In its heyday the works employed 2,000 people. The village later had a railway branch line from Wilsontown to Auchengray railway station on the Caledonian Railway. This remained open for some years after the demise of the iron works and served several collieries in the area. It was at the Wilsontown Ironworks that James Beaumont Neilson developed the first hot blast form of the blast furnace, which he patented in 1828.Coal was produced at Wilsontown besides iron. When the ironworks closed, coal continued to be mined, and production did not finally cease until 1955.The buildings were cleared after closure, but the general layout of the site can still be discerned and a heritage trail has been created. The core of the site is legally protected. It has been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1968. In 2007 Forestry Commission Scotland, the present owners of the site, launched a project to raise public awareness of the Wilsontown Ironworks. Wilsontown features in the drinking song We're Nae Awa' Tae Bide Awa':