Wind Energy Planning

Second Challenge to Essex Wind Farm Proposals

A second challenge has been made to an Essex wind farm proposal this week leading to questions about the effectiveness of UK planning and legal systems.

The Bradwell wind farm proposal submitted by wind energy company npower renewables has been subject to two public inquiries at which planning consent was granted on both occasions.

Infrastructure Planning Commission Lift Off

The UK’s new Infrastructure Planning Commission opened its doors to major infrastructure planning applications this week.

The first applications are anticipated from the energy and transport sectors including several wind farm proposals (Atlantic Array offshore wind farm – RWE npower, Irish Sea offshore wind farm – Centrica and Nant-y-Moch wind farm, Wales – Airtricity).

Conservative Proposals for ‘Open Source’ Planning

Newly announced Conservative proposals for the UK Planning system would make it harder for wind energy companies to build wind farms without the support of immediate neighbours.

The Tories say that on-shore wind farms are not appropriate in all settings: local community consent is vital, and applications will need to be considered in the light of the possible impact on the local environment. This according to the Conservatives means allowing communities to be beneficiaries of onshore wind development. The Conservative wind farm policy is to allow communities that choose to host wind farms to keep the business rates they generate for six years. They are also “examining how community ownership of wind turbines can be introduced” despite many wind energy companies already operating community share option schemes at working wind farms.

The Conservatives believe that this is ‘fresh thinking’ and say that if they get into power this year they will actively support getting more of our energy from renewable sources, including both on-shore and off-shore wind.

Advertising Standards Agency Rule Against Wind Farm Protestors

The UK Advertising Agency (ASA) has this week ordered anti- wind farm campaigners to stop using misleading material in their leaflets.

The leaflet produced by a campaign group ‘Vale Villagers Against Scottish Power’ was designed to create fear in communities surrounding a proposed wind farm site in Warwickshire, England.

Conservative Planning Green Paper – Power to Which People?

“Power to the People” is the new Conservative catchphrase. The catchphrase forms the basis of a new Conservative green paper on devolution and decentralisation “giving power back to local communities”. The paper outlines proposals for local government spending, planning and housing, local regulatory regimes and local referendums.

You’d be forgiven for thinking, given the latest expenses scandal, that the Tories would be treading carefully when it comes to the accountability of elected representatives. However the new Conservative green paper proposes abolishing the Standards Board who currently monitor the behaviour of local councillors.

Climate Challenges at Canadian Wind Farm Site

Wind energy companies are treading new ground this month by trialling wind turbines at extreme low temperatures in Canada.

The Wind Energy TechnoCentre is the developer and owner of a new 2 turbine trial project known as “Site Nordique Experimental en EolienCORUS” (SNEEC)”.

Wind turbine manufacturer REpower and wind farm company RES Canada have now completed the construction of the 2 Megawatt turbines in the Gaspé region of the country. The trial is a forerunner to a much larger wind farm comprising 477 wind turbines in Québec.

The REpower MM92 turbines have been installed in the town of Gaspé, near Rivière-au-Renard. The SNEEC project uses two special cold climate versions (CCV) of the REpower MM92.

Scottish Power Doubles Installed Wind Energy

ScottishPower Renewables (SPR) nearly doubled its electricity output during 2009, producing over 1.7 million megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity from its 23 operational windfarms. The rise of 43.8% on 2008 figures meant that SPR produced enough green electricity to power the average annual needs of over 375,000 homes.

Last year, the company completed the construction of Europe’s largest onshore wind farm, Whitelee, near Glasgow. The wind farm extends over an area the size of the city of Glasgow itself.

The Scottish Government has also granted planning consent for two extensions to Whitelee, which will increase the maximum output from the windfarm to 593MW. In addition other wind farm companies including Coriolis Energy and Community Wind Power are proposing further Whitelee extensions.

Yes2Wind Revolutionised

A wind energy support website started by Greenpeace, Friends of the the Earth (FOE) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has been revolutionised further to the site coming under ‘new management’ last year.

The Yes 2Wind website was set up many years ago as an information hub for wind farms in the UK. Supporters could use the facility to find out the location of their nearest wind farm proposal. In May of last year, the original NGOs approved the free of charge aquisition of the Yes2Wind domain by yes2wind limited. The new team is made up of directors with a history of involvement in the wind sector. Yes2Wind Directors say that the aim of the company has always been to finance and resource the project in order to enable it to achieve its original objectives of providing information to wind energy supporters. Active co-operation with NGOs and local support groups is also an integral part of these objectives.

Green Light for Controversial Essex Wind Farm

Planning consent was granted today for an Essex Wind farm in the east of England after two public inquiries and a high court challenge.

The 10 turbine wind farm planned near the village of Bradwell in Essex, is close to the site of a 1960’s Magnox nuclear power station. The wind farm consent follows a decision to quash the proposal in 2008 due to a typo in the original planning consent. This typo would have potentially lead to unenforceable planning conditions relating to the noise output of the wind farm.

In re-granting consent for the wind turbines, Planning Inspector Mr Mellor said: “The Bradwell wind farm would contribute to the large number of wind turbines likely to be needed to meet renewable energy targets. It is immaterial that a new nuclear power station is likely to be developed nearby or that the wind farm would generate much less energy than that power station.”

Mellor claimed that both the wind farm and the nuclear power station would contribute to non-carbon energy production and that both are likely to be needed to meet national targets for energy production and to replace lost energy production capacity elsewhere.

EDF Drops Olympic Wind Turbine Bid

French owned electricity supply and generation company EDF decided not to bid for the London Olympic wind turbine project according to the London Evening Standard yesterday.

The nuclear giant EDF say that there is not enough wind to justify building the £2 million ($3.2m) turbine at the site close to London’s Hackney Marshes. Instead they have suggested installing one on the south coast at Weymouth – close to the Olympic sailing venue.

The Olympic Delivery Authority have however accepted a proposal from electricity supply rival company Ecotricity who says that there is enough wind for the wind turbine to be viable. Ecotricity openly criticised EDF last year for ’stealing’ its green union jack logo and using it to make them appear green, renewable and British.

Using Social Media for Wind Energy Projects

People and companies are realising the potential opportunities offered by social networking sites when promoting or consulting on new projects according to PlanningBlog.

Mark Wilding asked planners what they thought of using social media as a tool for planning application consultation and although a note of caution was urged with regard to the ability of these tools to contain detail, most respondents agreed there is great potential to engage people who do not usually get involved with planning issues. That is, if IT managers would lift restrictions on the use of social network sites (particularly common within local authorities and large companies).

Two examples of social network sites currently dedicated to wind energy are the facebook sites “Yes to Wind Turbines at Spaldington & Holme on Spalding Moor” and “I want a wind farm in my back yard because I’m not an idiot”.

The former is an example of a dedicated project support group set up by the neighbour of two proposed wind farms near Spaldington – the membership is now up to 144. There are links to the project websites and information about who members can e-mail and write to in order to express their views. The latter sprung up further to the closure of the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight and now has over 36,500 members. This membership reflects numerous public opinion surveys which time after time demonstrate that although not shouting the loudest, the majority of people support wind energy.

Green Light for Power Line Good for Scottish Wind Energy

The contentious new power line from Beauly in the Scottish Highlands to Denny in the south was given the green light today.

Minister for Energy Jim Mather MSP announced the Beauly-Denny Transmission Upgrade:

“The Beauly – Denny upgrade is the most significant grid infrastructure project in a generation. Scotland’s electricity network needs significant reinforcement to allow our vast renewables potential to be harnessed, transmitted and exported – currently we simply do not have the transmission capacity to carry the green energy which Scotland will generate over the coming years.”

“The Beauly-Denny upgrade will help unlock Scotland’s onshore and offshore energy potential and this consent recognises the wider context, benefits and challenges of a development of this scale and opportunity.”

The proposed power lines were subject to an extensive Public Inquiry in 2007. Inquiry Reporters concluded that the line is necessary from a technical and economic perspective, and is consistent with both the Applicants’ duties under the Electricity Act and with national Planning and Energy policy.

The Reporters recommended that, apart from two short sections, the line should be consented.

Niall Stuart, Chief Executive of Scottish Renewables said the upgrade is good news for the economy, employment and the environment. “The upgrade is absolutely vital if we are to capture the full potential of Scotland’s unique wind, wave and tidal resources” said Stuart.

UK Electricity from Renewables Increases 25%

Electricity from renewables has risen by 25% according to new government statistics released at the end of December. Wind energy alone produced 38.9% more by the end of Quarter 3 2009, than in 2008.

Renewable energy now accounts for 7% of the UK’s electricity after a 2% increase in 2009. Renewables generated 5.50 Terrawatt hours with roughly half supplying domestic homes and half supplying industry.

Overall, electricity consumption in some sectors fell with the sharpest fall in the industrial sector demonstrating effects of the recession. Both oil and gas consumption fell.

The figures were issued in DUKES http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn150/pn150.aspx

Offshore Wind Energy Credits Extended

It has been a good financial week for renewable energy with the European Union agreeing to fund 7.2 billion euros for tackling global warming at Copenhagen. Also this week, the UK Government announced further financial help for offshore wind. Thursday’s pre-budget report proposed an extension to the time limit on double credits for offshore wind energy projects.

Offshore wind energy projects operational before 2014 will recieve 2 renewable obligation certificates (ROCs) rather than the 1 ROC onshore wind energy recieves.

The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) welcomed Chancellor Alistair Darling’s Pre-Budget Report commitment to maintain support for offshore wind energy at 2 ROCs per megawatt hour (MWh) to 2014. The UK is the world leader in offshore wind with more projects installed, in planning and in construction than any other country in the world. The BWEA anticipate that by 2020 at least 20,000MW of offshore wind will be installed and operating in UK waters.

New £15m Wind Turbine Test Facility Planned for Blyth, UK

A new wind turbine blade test facility is planned for Blyth in the north east of England it was announced by R& D company Nirec today.

The £15 million ($24m) facility will test new turbine blade designs before they are used in offshore wind farms. The wind turbine blades to be tested will be up to 100 metres in length.

Narec are providers of R&D, consultancy, test and demonstration facilities for the renewable energy sector. The blade test centre will be the biggest of its type in the world, expanding the existing testing capability developed over the last five years at Blyth.

The expansion of the centre is being funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Department for Energy and Climate Change (£11.5m / $19m) and Regional Development Agency One North East (£3.5m/ $5.7m).

New Study says Wind Farms have no Measurable Effect on House Prices

A new study released by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory reveals that the view of wind farms does not appear to have a significant effect on the sale of houses.

The study investigated the sales of 7,500 homes between 1996 and 2007 located within 10 miles of 24 operational wind farms. These sales included homes within a mile of wind farms. Specifically, neither the view of the wind farm facilities nor the distance of the home to those facilities is found to have any consistent, measurable and statistically significant effect on home sales.

The study concludes that ‘although the analysis cannot dismiss the possibility that individual homes have been or could be negatively impacted, it finds that if these impacts do exist, they are either too small and too infrequent to result in any widespread observable impact’.

The Wave

Tens of thousands of people will be marching through the streets of London tomorrow to demonstrate their support for a deal to stop climate change.

The Wave will call on leaders across the globe to take urgent action to secure an international agreement to stop global warming rising above the ‘danger threshold’ of 2 degrees C. The march is to make a clear statement on climate change, the weekend before the start of Copenhagen United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Organisers of the march, Climate Chaos say that the world’s poorest and most vulnerable are already suffering the impacts of climate change. They are being hit first and worst because we, and other rich countries, created this mess and are making it worse.

Clipper Windpower Share Price Rise

Wind turbine manufacturer Clipper has sold its Maryland wind energy project together with wind turbines for the 70 megawatt capacity project to Constellation Energy.

The sale of the ‘Criterion wind energy project’ included 28, Clipper ‘Liberty 2.5MW’ wind turbines for at total of $140m. Constellation is a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Maryland.

As a result the wind turbine company Clipper, moved higher on the Aim list yesterday with shares rising by 3.8 per cent to 148p. President and CEO of Clipper Windpower said;

Local Targets – Good for UK Renewable Energy?

The Conservative party tell us they are all about local empowerment and ‘decentralised devolution’. Their decentralisation green paper ‘Control Shift’ released earlier this year set out proposals for change if they are elected next year.

Conservative proposals include abolishing all planning and housing powers exercised by regional government, creating bottom up incentives for housebuilding by allowing councils to benefit from the increase in council tax revenues. They would also encourage councils to establish their own local enterprise partnerships to take over economic development functions.

In this decentralised scenario planners and industry groups have started to question where higher level housing and renewable energy targets would sit, given the need for the consideration of demand and supply opportunities somewhere between the national and local levels. This has previously been dealt with by either mid – tier county councils or regional governments.

Cambridge Wind Farm Given Green Light

The Wadlow wind farm proposal in Cambridgeshire, England has been given the go-ahead by the Secretary of State.

The proposal for 13 wind turbines was objected to by the local authority – South Cambridgeshire District Council, local residents and horse riders.

It was South Cambs’ case that this was not the ‘right location for a wind farm’ of this size. However Planning Inspector David Lavender found that the wind farm company involved; RES ‘did not need to exhaust sequentially all other better locations’ to show that the wind farm site is needed against renewable energy targets.

Objections related to wind turbines scaring horses however appear to have backfired … as Lavender concluded that horse riding seemed to be a very dangerous activity whether there were turbines there or not.