The 76-turbine Pen y Cymoedd Wind Energy Project, located in the Upper Rhondda, Cynon and Afan valleys on land managed by Natural Resources Wales, is capable of meeting the electricity needs of more than 13 percent of households in Wales every year. It will also displace more than 300,000 tonnes of CO2 from fossil fuelled generation in an average year while boosting Vattenfall’s drive to triple its European wind capacity to 7GW by 2025.
“To get to this stage of the project safely and on schedule is obviously very important to Vattenfall and our contractors” said Will Wason, Vattenfall’s Project Director for the £400 million project. “I sincerely hope that full generation from Wales’s largest onshore wind farm, producing competitive, clean, predictable power from the valleys will mean a lot to Wales. Pen y Cymoedd will power on average 188,000 homes every year across the nation with climate smart electricity and boost action on climate change. Generating full power from Wales’ largest onshore wind farm is a major achievement for the nation.”
Andrew Maberly-Jones, Natural Resources Wales’s (NRW) Energy Delivery Programme project manager, added that the start of energy generaration at the wind farm is a further key milestone in the Pen y Cymoedd project.
Vattenfall has also acted determinedly to support skills development and employment opportunities in Wales with its wind energy programme. Pen y Cymoedd will employ a workforce of 20 onsite for the lifetime of the project. Michael Leach, who’s family lives in Pontypridd, joined Vattenfall's Pen y Cymoedd apprenticeship scheme in 2013 with few skills. He is now a fully qualified wind turbine technician working for one of the leading wind energy companies in the world, deploying technology that is leading the way in the fight against climate change.
Image: Pen y Cymoedd wind farm (Vattenfall)
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