Campaigners for East Stoke wind farm drum up support in Wareham (From Bournemouth Echo)
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Campaigners for East Stoke wind farm drum up support in Wareham
9:30am Tuesday 9th March 2010 in
CAMPAIGNERS in favour of a wind farm have been drumming up support on the streets of Wareham.
Purbeck Environment Action Team (Peat) members, who back the latest controversial plans for a wind farm at East Stoke, canvassed shoppers and local traders ahead of today’s deadline to lodge comments with district planners.
Peat say more than 200 letters were collected in two hours, expressing support for what could be Dorset’s first ever wind farm.
Renewable energy company Infinergy recently lodged a revised planning application outlining four giant turbines for Masters Quarry, Puddletown Road, Purbeck.4 East Lulworth resident and Peat member Andrew Butler, said: “We are standing up for clean, green, renewable energy and for the quiet majority. We all use energy and we all need to take responsibility for its production.
“Wind energy is the most viable option available to us at the moment, it’s truly sustainable. It doesn’t pollute and unlike coal, oil and gas, it will never run out.”
The giant turbines, standing 125 metres tall, are capable of generating a combined total of 9.2 megawatts, the equivalent electri-city needed to power 5,200 homes.
Opponents of the farm point out these figures relate to all turbines operating at their maximum output.
Terry Stewart, president of Dorset Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “The wind in Dorset is intermittent so the turbines will only produce electricity for under 25 per cent of the claimed capacity.”
Concerned residents and green energy supporters can register their comments with Purbeck District Council.
Comments(11)
traindriver3ss
says...
1:45pm Tue 9 Mar 10
dave rose
says...
1:58pm Tue 9 Mar 10
PEAT work's for the developer, two
have just moved in to a cottage
owned buy the developer.
Real local people collected over 1000
signature's even after 4 pages where
stolen form ROGERSGARDENSTONE
purbeckpara
says...
7:23pm Tue 9 Mar 10
LittleMissCleverClogs
says...
9:37am Wed 10 Mar 10
I bet you wrote that from your energy-guzzling laptop, whilst boiling the kettle, leaving your 52" TV screen on stand-by, firing up your oil-fired heating, charging up your iPod and mobile phone, listening to your CD player and getting ready to go out in your petrol-guzzling landrover.
The UK needs to start accepting that we don't live in Victorian times anymore and that we need to start living sustainably. The people of Dorset generally DO want a wind farm - we probably want several! - because we're fed up at being reliant on climate change-causing fossil fuels from politically unstable countries. It's just a silent minority that moans about everything. We have an amazing opportunity here, let's stop thinking backwards and being scared of change and embrace the future... for once.
purbeckpara
says...
2:07pm Wed 10 Mar 10
roaminghaggis
says...
4:04pm Wed 10 Mar 10
purbeckpara
says...
8:56pm Wed 10 Mar 10
GPWool
says...
8:13am Thu 11 Mar 10
9.2 megawatts operating at 27% capacity (which is predicted after 2 years anemometer readings) will give over 21 million domestic units and power (very roughly) about 5,000 homes (based on an average of 4,200 kwh per home).
It's a real shame when misleading information gets reported as fact.
Purbeckboy
says...
10:17pm Sat 13 Mar 10
jaimalala
says...
2:34pm Mon 15 Mar 10
And Purbeckboy is also correct when he says onshore wind is not the only source of renewable energy. However, Dorset needs 64-84MW of renewable energy by 2010 (and 118MW by 2020) and the UK essentially needs to get of fossil fuels by 2050, and achieve 15% of renewable energy generation by 2020.
As far as Dorset is concerned, are there too many other options? Energy from waste may be coming on line (10MW?). We have landfill and sewage gas (12MW), but we are still short. As discussed above, solar PV farms take up huge areas (at large expense). We don't have the weather for utility-scale CSP. So do we rely on biofuels from palm oil? That is another question....
From a UK 2050 point of view, I have yet to see a properly thought out energy plan which doesn't include onshore wind. Tidal (25GW?), wave (6GW?), nuclear (20GW?30?), offshore wind (35GW?), coal with CCS (30GW?40?) all have their capacities, costs and place in the 2050 plans (but many aren't likely to contribute to the 2020 renewables targets), but I can't see how onshore wind is not needed.
There may be such a plan out there, of course.
I would question that onshore turbines are dangerous or polute the countryside with noise, but definately agree with and echo your statement of affection for the Purbeck countryside.
Thanks to GPwool for making the point that I was trying to make at the begining, but doing it more eloquently than I managed.
Prattlingly long post again.....
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BLOWING HOT: Members of The Purbeck Environment Action Team (Peat) promote their Yes to Wind campaign in Wareham
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jaimalala says...
12:20pm Tue 9 Mar 10
Is the figure of 5,200 homes an overestimate?
It seems that this confusion is due to uncertainty over the amount of electricity a home uses.
9.2MW running at a capacity factor of of 25% is around 20 million kWh per year. For this to cover 5,200 homes, each home would use around 3,900 kWh per year.
This article implies that opponents say the 5,200 homes is at a 100% capacity factor (and it may be a miss-quote) and is therefore an overestimate. At 100%, 9.2MW is 80million kWh per year. Which is around 15,500 kWh per house.
How much does your house use?
'Homes' is a silly unit, as the amount of electricity a home uses varies vastly depending upon the size and use of the building. However, I believe that the figures that OFGEM asks price comparison websites to use is 3,300 kWh per year. I think that this may be an underestimate, and the real figure may be around 4,500 kWh per year.
But either way, the fact that is is not 15,000 implies that the 5,200 is not a large over-estimate. So the figures are not based on the turbines operating at maximum output.
Sorry for the length of this post!