Wind farm

Wind power - the way forward?

On 11 September, a group of Rushcliffe Liberal Democrat councillors attended a seminar at a wind farm at Burton Wold, near Kettering. This is a "showpiece" site generating up to 20 megawatts (MW) of electricity and demonstrating the best features of wind power generation.

The seminar was organised by the British Wind Energy Association and was intended to give council representatives an insight into the planning issues which are relevant to wind farms.

A full report of the seminar can be seen at www.bwea.com/planningconferences/08eastMids.html.

The Burton Wold site has 10 turbines on a working agricultural farm in an exposed, slightly elevated location. Each turbine is mounted on a tower 65 metres tall, and its 3-blade rotor is 70 metres in diameter - thus the total height of the turbine is 100 metres to the tip of the topmost rotor (see photos below).

Each turbine has a generating capacity of 2 MW, though in practice the output on an averagely breezy day is between 0.7 and 1.4 MW.

While admitting that the organisers of the seminar had a vested interest in getting their message across, I have to agree that the visit was very impressive and was a highly encouraging introduction to the future of electricity generation in the UK. We have to prepare increasingly for a situation in which:

- coal is too dirty and produces too much CO2
- UK-sourced oil and gas are running out
- foreign-sourced oil and gas come from politically unreliable countries
- nuclear power brings its own concerns about long-term waste

... and so we must look to renewable sources such as wind, wave, tide and solar, as well as hydro. (Nuclear fusion, anyone? It's still 50 years away.)

Of these renewable sources (besides hydro), wind is the most established and the most productive.

The main advantages are:

- The energy source is free and will never run out.
- The means of generation is completely clean and safe, and it emits no CO2 (apart from what is emitted during manufacture and installation of the turbines).
- The UK is the windiest country in Europe - the energy is just waiting to be harvested!
- There is no need to transport the energy source.
- The footprint of a turbine is very small - just a few metres across - and farming can continue right up to its base.
- The visual impact of a turbine is (arguably) small and inoffensive, especially if at some distance from homes.
- There is virtually no noise - you can stand right underneath a rotor and hear only a mild swishing sound, while continuing with a normal conversation.
- If the need for a turbine is at an end, it is very easy to remove it and all traces of it.

The disadvantages are:

- The wind doesn't always blow strongly enough - which is why wind has to form part of a mix of energy sources across the country.
- The energy density (MW per hectare of the wind farm site) is low compared to other sources - but you can still use a wind farm site for normal agriculture.

At present the total UK wind-power generation capacity is 2723 MW - about 4% of total UK capacity. This is set to rise towards an interim target of 6000 MW (by 2012) and more in succeeding years. The evidence is increasingly that the future lies with large industrial-scale turbines rather than small domestic generators, which are nowhere near being cost-effective. I am very keen to see wind making a much bigger contribution to UK power, and we have the capability to be among the world's leaders.