Dulas, a leading UK-based renewable energy consultancy, has announced that work to install a meteorological mast at the site of a proposed wind farm in the region of the Monadhliath mountain range, Scotland, will commence imminently. This work follows Dulas' recent decommissioning of the six meteorological masts at the proposed Viking wind farm on mainland Shetland, which was completed ahead of schedule despite challenging site conditions.

To meet the country's renewable energy needs and secure a route to market for their projects, developers are increasingly relying on very remote areas with a high wind resource. The proposed Viking wind farm is located on mainland Shetland, the gustiest place in Europe and home to some of the highest average annual wind speeds of any onshore location in Europe. Similarly, other Scottish wind energy projects Dulas is supporting are in extremely remote sites - often located more than 700 metres above sea level and characterised by high winds and heavy snowfall.

In such remote environments, mast installations require the fitment of heating elements in order to protect the monitoring equipment from the effects of prolonged lower temperatures, ice and snowfall and ensure data collection is uninterrupted.

In decommissioning the meteorological masts at Viking, truncated weather windows meant Dulas' team had to respond rapidly to the task in hand.  The work was swiftly completed in under 12 days.

"It's by no means easy to lower 60 and 70ft masts in the gusty winds and wet weather typical of Shetland," said Rachel Munday, Wind Monitoring Lead at Dulas. "But, drawing on our experience of this type of work in such environments previously, we adapted the decommissioning process to ensure that the landscape saw as little disturbance as possible. We also managed the impact of potentially extreme weather conditions on the safety and welfare of the wind monitoring team with increased shelter provisions."

"Dulas is rapidly establishing a reputation for complex meteorological mast installation, maintenance and decommissioning at challenging sites, and by refining our expertise in this area, we look forward to working on new projects across further remote regions in Northern Europe."

Dulas | www.dulas.org