Plans for onshore wind farm project likely to cost about £40m

The onshore wind farm project has a deadline of 2026 to begin energy generation

An onshore wind farm on the Isle of Man could cost about £40m, Manx Utilities has confirmed.

Earlier this month, Chairman Tim Crookall MHK said two sites in the north and south had been identified.

Figures show the northern project at Sulby and Druidale would cost £40m, while the southern plans for Earystane and Scards sat between £30m and £40m.

The varied costs for the south would depend on whether a landing stage at Castletown was required in the south.

The government project is part of a drive to produce 75% of Manx electricity through solar and onshore wind by 2026.

In February, Tynwald supported the island's publicly-owned monopoly electricity provider progressing the plans.

Sulby and Druidale have been chosen as the northern site for the project

The report, which outlined the information shared at a workshop in July, was designed to help the operational decision making team select a single site and stressed the costs were "illustrative only".

The wind farm would have a target of producing 20 megawatts by the end of 2026.

The report said in the longer term, higher windspeeds meant the southern location would "deliver a lower cost to customers in terms of a future generation tariff".

While the northern site could produce enough energy to power 25,000 homes in future, the southern site could cover a third of the island's energy demand.

The options for the south were five 4.2 megawatt turbines with no landing stage to deliver the structures at a cost of £30m, or four 5 megawatt turbines with a landing stage required to get them onshore an additional £10m.

A project on the northern site would need between three and seven 2.5 megawatt turbines or four to 12 2 megawatt turbines - both at a cost of £40m.

The site to be progressed would not be selected until until more ecological data was known, the report said.