School wind turbines

The Highland Council has completed a comprehensive risk assessment of wind turbines located in school grounds which confirms that they are safe to operate.  

The Council suspended the operation of the turbines in May ahead of the review.  Each site has now been assessed and following servicing and site works the turbines will be re-started on a school-by-school basis during November.

The clear conclusion of the risk assessments is that the turbines will operate safely at wind speeds up to 134mph. Applying a further safety margin, the Council will ensure that no turbine is operational in wind speeds exceeding 100mph.

Procedures will be in place to ensure that turbines are isolated and made safe before such extreme conditions prevail. Further site specific measures will be carried out, principally fencing, servicing and training, before re-starting the turbines, in line with the recommendations of the independent consultants, BRE, who carried out detailed inspections of each location, and the conclusions of our own risk assessments.

The deployment of wind turbines forms an important part of the Council's plans to meet challenging national targets for carbon reduction and demonstrates the continued commitment of the Council to reducing carbon emissions and energy costs through the use of renewable energy technologies.  Following the proper assessment of risks, selection of appropriate locations and deployment of protective measures we intend to continue with and expand our turbine programme.

You can view the risk assessments for each school below: