WORK will soon begin on the construction of the Little Raith wind farm complex, Cowdenbeath Rotary Club heard on Thursday.

Guest speaker, Alex Cuthbertson, a member of the Little Raith Liaison Committee, said that the first turf of the project would be cut at the beginning of May with current coming on-stream in the spring of 2012.

Power company, West Coast Energy, intend that the wind farm, which will be situated near the Mossmorran Petro-Chemical Complex, will create enough electricity to power 15,500 homes.

Mr Cuthbertson said that the site was chosen by the company because of a good wind flow and due to the limited planning issues that would exist with the site, plus good road connections.

He added, "There will be nine turbines at Little Raith, each of them some 400 feet high and it will take upwards of nine months to construct these.

"The erection of the towers should be complete by around January next year and the complex should be producing electricity by April 2012." When in operation the complex should produce low noise levels and the project was not expected to have a major impact on the local environment.

Mr Cuthbertson went on to state that the project, which was expected to operate for at least 25 years, would trigger a community benefit fund.

"This will be for the use of the neighbouring communities of Cowdenbeath, Lochgelly, Lumphinnans and Auchtertool and is expected to total £54,000 annually," he said.

"It will be up to the communities to decide where the money will be spent and local community councils have been involved in discussions on how this will operate.

"People will see from the A92 how the project is developing and by the end of this year it will be well underway," he added.

l Our picture gives an artist's impression of how the development will look.