Second wind for energy project?

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Revised proposals are set to be presented for an 11-turbine wind farm in north Cornwall.

Cornwall Council’s strategic planning committee originally refused Good Energy’s application to erect 11 turbines at Week St Mary near Bude in October 2014, on grounds that it would harm the local landscape.

Good Energy appealed the decision, however, with an inquiry set to be heard in April.

The original proposal was for 11 turbines with a maximum tip height of 125 metres and total installed capacity of between 22 and 27.5MW.

The new design features the same number of turbines with the same maximum tip height, but longer blades and a lower hub height, potentially increasing the total installed capacity of the wind farm to 38.5MW.

Should the plans be given the go-ahead, it could become the first wind farm in the UK to operate without government subsidy.

Last year, the Government announced an end to subsidies for onshore wind farms in Britain from April 2016, a year earlier than anticipated.

It also introduced new planning rules to ensure wind turbine proposals would only get the go-ahead if they had the clear backing of the local community.

Good Energy, a Wiltshire-based renewable energy company, says the new proposals for the Big Field Wind Farm mean it could be funded solely by income from the electricity it generates.

The company also plans to open up the project to investment from local people, making it potentially the largest community-owned wind farm in England.

Good Energy CEO and founder, Juliet Davenport, said: “This is a bold and innovative response to the challenges laid down by Government to the renewables industry since the election last year.

“This project will give local people the chance to show their support for renewable energy, and all the benefits it brings both locally and globally, by investing in their own wind farm.

“The benefits of the Big Field Wind Farm are too great for it not to go ahead just because subsidies are being withdrawn.

“We have listened carefully over the past 18 months to everything we’ve been told about the project, and to the wider debate around government support for renewables. As a result, we’ve come up with innovative new proposals using the latest, most efficient turbine designs that will deliver a greater power output from the wind farm with minimal additional impact.

“Being community-owned will ensure that the economic benefit of the wind farm can be retained locally and re-invested in Cornwall.”

3 COMMENTS

  1. We need energy security, wind and solar are intermittent and require backup. At the same time their inclusion in the grid makes conventional power sources less efficient and more polluting. Subsidies are only one of the problems with wind and solar energy, albeit a huge problem. The sums being given to landowners for a pointless energy source come out of our pockets, and have forced many into fuel poverty. This expenditure at a time of austerity is obscene. Finally, what those who live in towns and well away from any personal experience of living with turbines don’t realise, is that wind energy comes at huge cost to local communities, who lose their landscapes and amenity, whose roads are clogged with construction lorries, and at huge cost to wildlife. Then there’s water pollution, rare earth mining in China. And CO2 savings, well oddly the wind developers have resisted ever producing cradle to grave CO2 audits of their projects – and that’s supposed to be why these things are built! For heaven’s sake, why don’t the politicians and the wind advocates do some homework and start making some responsible decisions.

  2. Can’t believe I’m reading this! Of no benefit to the local community or the enviro want and is not wanted. Creating an eye saw once again on the north Cornish coast and effecting wildlife and its habitats.

  3. The local community do not want it! It offers only an eyesore and no real benefit to locals – good energy jas not listened!

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