Jones Bros completes £20m wind farm contract
CIVIL engineering company Jones Bros has completed a £20m contract to build the infrastructure for one of Britain’s most powerful onshore wind farms.
The Ruthin-based company was appointed to build the infrastructure for a 60 turbine wind farm at Dunbar, in Scotland, by Norwegian energy and shipping company Fred Olsen Renewables two years ago.
The contract for the wind farm, which is called Crystal Rig II, has resulted in Jones Bros opening its first Scottish office in Linlithgow.
The completed wind farm now represents almost 10% of Scotland’s operational wind capacity.
Jones Bros built 28km of access roads and also installed the electrical infrastructure.
Jones Bros contracts director John Dielhof said: “The successful completion of this major contract shows that Jones Bros is now a significant player in the UK market to provide infrastructure services for renewable energy projects.
“The Crystal Rig installations were completed on time as planned.
“This was despite one of the worst winters the UK has seen for 60 years, which severely disrupted our work schedule.
“This success is a testament to the commitment and dedication of our loyal workforce, many of whom have worked for the company for many years.”
He added that the company’s expertise was also growing in other sectors, including other parts of the energy industry and coastal defence work, in addition to the firm’s traditional areas of expertise such as highways, infrastructure and waste management.
The Crystal Rig contract involved the installation of bases for 60 Siemens 2.3MW turbines, representing a total capacity of 138MW and taking the total Crystal Rig wind farm to 200MW.
In 2004, Jones Bros completed the infrastructure for the Cefn Croes wind farm, in Aberystwyth, which with 39 1.5MW GE turbines was the UK’s largest at the time.
It has also completed similar contracts at Carno, in mid Wales; Moelogan, in North Wales and Tullo, near Aberdeen.
The firm has kept growing throughout the recession and its turnover increased 21% to £46m in the year to 31 March 2010.
The firm is currently working on around 20 projects around the UK.
