New wind turbines double size
The height of the wind turbines now planned for Cheverton Down are much more than double the size of those already approved.
At 125 metres tall, they would be 30 metres taller than Big Ben and 45 metres smaller than Portsmouth’s Spinnaker Tower.
The height of the three planned turbines has been revealed by renewable energy company Cornwall Light & Power, which is to make a joint planning application with Island turbine blade-maker Vestas.
Under the existing permission granted for Cheverton Down, three turbines with a ground-to-blade-tip height of 50 metres could be built.
Cornwall Light & Power says the existing permission was for technology now unavailable and would require installing second-hand equipment that would generate 1.2 megawatts of electricity per turbine.
The new turbines are 125 metres — 411ft from the ground to tip — each projected to generate eight times more energy.
The Wight Against Rural Turbines (ThWART), which successfully defeated the Wellow Wind Farm turbines scheme, pledged to renew opposition to the Shorwell plan, in the heart of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
ThWART said it would insist on an environmental impact assessment, which was lacking from the previous planning process that began in 1993.
Cornwall Light & Power this week submitted a “scoping request” to the Isle of Wight Council.
This sets out the technical and environmental investigations to be undertaken as part of the assessment.
Cornwall Light & Power development manager Steve Allen said: “The scoping submission is a key milestone for us, as we work towards our goal of securing clean energy for the Isle of Wight. The next step will be to undertake environmental assessments to ensure the proposed turbines will not have any adverse effects on their environment and those surveys will form the basis of our planning application, which we hope to submit in the autumn.
“Of the 155 people we surveyed at the recent Big Green Picnic, 96 per cent supported plans to generate wind power on the Island and 90 per cent said they would support a planning application to install modern turbines at Cheverton Down.”
He said it would provide a base for research and development by Vestas, helping to make the Island a world leader in renewable energy technology.
By Richard Wright
8 July 2008
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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