Largest wind farm in Wales officially opens

Wales’ First Minister, Carwyn Jones, has officially opened the country’s largest wind energy farm. The 76-turbine project, called Pen y Cymoedd, is located in Neath Port Talbot and Rhondda Cynon Taf.

Swedish energy group Vattenfall invested £400 million in building Pen-y-Cymoedd Wind Energy project. Fifty-two% of this investment has gone back to the local economy, with over 1,000 workers from Wales helping to build the farm over the past three years.

President and CEO of Vattenfall, Magnus Hall said: “Pen y Cymoedd boosts Wales’ drive to carbon reduction, it accelerates Vattenfall’s shift to be fossil free in a generation and it helps the Welsh economy to grow.”

The scheme was built by means of a joint venture between Balfour Beatty and Jones Bros Civil Engineering.

Huw Jones, chairman of Jones Bros Civil Engineering said: “It’s fantastic that so much of the investment into the Pen y Cymoedd workforce has been going straight back into the Welsh economy via their pay packets.”

By 2020 the Welsh Government aims to reduce CO2 emissions to 60% of their 1990 levels, and to just 20% by 2050.

With a 228MW capacity, Pen y Cymoedd will displace over 300,000 tons of CO2 from electricity generated by fossil fuels in an average year through powering roughly 15% of Welsh households.

First Minister Carwyn Jones said: “Wind power is a key part of our efforts to build a sustainable low carbon economy for Wales.I am pleased we were able to support this project, which has shown how the local community, the Welsh economy and people right across the country can benefit from such a scheme.”