WORK has begun on a £90m windfarm that will blow a cool quarter of a million pounds per year into local residents’ pockets.

Ten years after it was first mooted, preliminary groundwork is under way on the massive Ray Windfarm on Lord Devonport’s estate on the Wanney Hills, near Kirkwhelpington.

The site will contain 16 monster turbines, within a stone‘s throw of the existing 18 turbines at the Green Rigg windfarm at Birtley, creating a veritable “valley of the windmills” between the A68 and the A696 main roads.

The development, which is being carried out by Swedish company Vattenfall, will escape the Government’s crackdown on windfarm subsidies, which only comes into force in April next year.

Vattenfall, which has offices on Hexham‘s Bridge End industrial estate, has pledged to donate £5m to worthy causes in the Wanney area over the 20-year life of the windfarm.

The company will start talking to local people next month over the best way to distribute the £250,000 per year which the windmills will generate for the community.

It wants views on how to organise the fund, and what local residents think the index linked payment should be invested in.

Work is expected to continue for 18 months on constructing the giant turbines, each of which will soar more than 400 feet into the sky above the unspoilt wild hills of Wanney

The turbines are designed to produce 54.4 megawatts of electricit – enough to meet the equivalent annual electricity demand of over 30,000 UK households.

Vattenfall’s construction manager for the Ray Windfarm, Paul Nickless, said: “It’s good to get under way with the Ray Wind Farm construction project.

“Throughout the 18-month build we will ensure local residents are kept up to date with construction activity.

”This is an exciting engineering exercise and we hope people will take a lot of interest in what we are doing.”

Vattenfall’s senior communications adviser Joanne Hutchinson added: “We want to start talking to people about the community fund in August.

“When the windfarm comes on stream early in 2017, Vattenfall will pay £250,000 per year into the community fund.

”This is a large amount of money and to ensure it’s put to the best possible local use we need to start preparations for that now.

“So I would ask local people to get involved and register their interest in the fund and the construction of the wind farm via the freepost form or the Vattenfall website.”

Local residents can register their interest in staying in touch with the scheme and the community fund via the Vattenfall website at www.vattenfall.co.uk/ray or by returning a freepost form included in a newsletter distributed to local households and businesses in the Kirkwhelpington area.

The early site preparation will see civil engineering works start straight away, before work to link the project to the National Grid starts in the autumn.

The turbines will be delivered to the site in sections during the summer of 2016, with the turbines expected to start turning and producing producing power early in 2017.

The 18 turbines at Green Rigg have become an accepted part of the North Tyne skyline but these were only a tiny fraction of the original 117 proposed for the Wanneys when the Government identified the Knowesgate area as a favoured area for windfarm development.

The announcement attracted a blizzard of windfarms applications, which resulted in a year long public inquiry throughout 2008. Although one application for 21 windmills at the Steadings was thrown out, others were granted - but only the Green Rigg scheme has yet been built.

Then Energy Minister Charles Hendry gave the green light to the 16 Ray Estate windmills after the public inquiry, saying: “About a quarter of the UK’s generating capacity is due to close by 2018 and we need to ensure that we secure the investment to replace that.

“Windfarms have a key role to play in boosting energy security and cutting carbon emissions, as long as they are well designed and appropriately sited.”

The original application at the Ray Estate, was for 20 turbines, but this was reduced by four in 2008 following consultation with planners.