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Saturday, 4th September 2010

Decision soon on windfarm application

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Published Date: 07 June 2006
DEVELOPERS behind the proposed wind farm near Shoresdean are expecting a decision from Berwick Borough Council by late summer.
It is over 18 months since Your Energy submitted an application to build 14 turbines, 360 feet high, on a plateau of gently rolling farmland about six miles south west of Berwick.
"It's gone on a long time but everything has to be assessed and we're
now being told a decision should be made towards the end of the summer," said Richard Mardon, the company's managing director.
"We appreciate the efforts the council has undertaken to make sure our project gets to committee with a report that is properly constructed so members can vote on the reality rather than anything that they might have read in a newspaper or anywhere else."
Your Energy has come in for criticism from protest groups, notably the Moorsyde Action Group, over the new figures it has produced to accompany the planning submission.
The company has so far produced three sets of figures. The original planning application was for 2.75MW turbines that provided 38.5MW capacity, then it claimed it would use 3MW turbines with a 42MW capacity - 10% less power despite more powerful turbines.
They now state the scheme would have a capacity of, 'between 28 and 42 megawatts', that the individual turbines would have a rating, 'of between 2MW and 3MW' and that 'the capacity factor may be between 23% and 30%'.
However, Moorsyde Action Group has pointed out that even though they have no idea of the capacity or efficiency of the scheme, they are now claiming an output figure that would supply an additional 500 homes and 4% more of Alnwick borough than on their website calculation which uses the 42MW capacity figure.
Your Energy say the adendum was issued as a result of the evolution of wind turbine technology since the original application was made in November 2004.
Mr Mardon said: "Protest groups tend to get upset because we can not give precise figures for the electricity produced by the wind farm.
"That is totally understandable because when we come to tender for the turbine construction in a year or two's time, should we get planning permission, we can not possibly foresee what technology will be around.
"The wind turbine technology has developed over the last five years on a very steep curve and these modern turbines produce five times as much electricity as the ones that were built five years ago so we can only give a range.
"But that range, whether it's 18,000 households or 13,000 households it is still a significant number of households and that is the important thing to appreciate.
"Whatever the final output of the wind farm is there is a significant number of households that will get renewable energy and it will be a significant contribution to the regional target so perhaps people are trying to pick a fight on this when it is not really an issue."
Your Energy believe their hopes have been bolstered by the fact there have been no objections from statutory consultees including English Nature and MoD.
Your Energy were also the first wind farm developers to submit a formal planning application in Berwick Borough so there is no requirement for it to take cumulative impact into account as other developers such as Force 9 Energy and Catamount will have to at Barmoor.
The company, which is owned by Mistral, has also recently opened its first UK wind farm at Burton Wold in Northamptionshire where there are 10 turbines, 300 feet high.
Matt Kelly, development manager, said: "It shows that we do own and operate wind farm sites and don't just sell them on to someone else.
"We're very pleased with the Burton Wold development and the positive reaction it has received in the community. It is a similar landscape to what is being proposed at Moorsyde and people can see for themselves what the turbines actually look like."



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