The Carmichael family have the privilege of being one of the world's longest established small farming businesses having been land stewards of the Carmichael lands since at least the thirteenth century but this carries a significant and continuous environmental responsibility. As our energy consumption has risen with modern appliances in renovated tourism cottages and visitor centre we have felt the need to generate some of our own energy. We looked at solar, hydro, biomass and wind and decided our greatest potential was with the latter.

The Wind Turbine is made by Atlantic Orient Corporation in Vermont USA and is a 15/50 KW mid size turbine on a 90 foot high lattice tower suitable for large farms and small Estates and isolated Islands. It is ideally suited for Scotland which has Europe's largest wind energy resource and can generate up to the equivalent of 15-20 modern houses worth of electricity. The windmill was constructed in late August 1998 and commissioned in October and is supplying a significant proportion of the power requirements of the Carmichael Visitor centre which has year round need for heat in winter and cooling for meat plant and freezers in summer. It is not envisaged that any power will be sold back to the national grid and the best rate of return will be achieved by replacing expensive bought in top rate power. We acknowledge the generous financial support of Scottish Enterprise and Lanarkshire Development Agency in making this £100,000 project possible.