London-headquartered Cubico Sustainable Investments has announced plans for a 100MW onshore wind farm near Manchester.
The company plans to locate Scout Moor II next to the existing Scout Moor wind farm in the north-west of England and marks the first major onshore wind development planned for England in over a decade.
Subject to planning permission, Cubico said Scout Moor II could be operational by 2030, calling it the largest onshore wind development in England. The proposals could bring an estimated £200 million of investment and hundreds of green jobs across the project’s lifespan and Cubico is further planning a multi-million pound community wealth fund and Moorland restoration and management plan to support local initiatives and promote biodiversity across the area.
Cubico has a regional office in Manchester, near the planned site for development, which the company says was identified as “one of the best potential locations” for wind energy generation in England.
The company, which develops, operates and owns clean energy assets across the world, currently operates over 250MW of wind and solar projects in the UK. It said it plans to invest roughly £300 million in new projects across various technologies in the coming years.
This investment and the proposal for Scout Moor II reflects Cubico’s “strong confidence” in the UK renewables sector, the company’s chief executive officer David Swindin said.
He explained: “We are encouraged by the government’s vision to accelerate the build out of renewable energy infrastructure across the country, and we are committed to delivering projects that decarbonise our power system, enhance energy security, and benefit local communities.”
While it is headquartered in the UK, privately-owned Cubico’s main shareholders are two Canadian pension funds – Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) and Public Sector Pension (PSP) – having bought out UK bank Santander in 2016. In August, reports stated that OTPP and PSP were planning a complete exit from the business and had begun reaching out to potential investors.
The wind energy generation plant is the first to be planned after the Labour government’s decision to remove the de facto ban on onshore wind shortly after it was elected. Chancellor of the exchequer, Rachel Reeves, announced the removal of two tests set out in planning policy, footnotes 57 and 58 to paragraph 163, which had hindered the development of onshore wind farms since its introduction under the Conservative government in 2015.
The move supports the government’s stated goal of doubling onshore wind capacity by 2030. Its efforts to build investor confidence in the UK’s clean energy sector appear to be paying off, with huge investment announced during the 2024 UK Investment Summit at the beginning of October.
