April 16, 2007
U.K.

£850,000 plea made for wind farm

An urgent appeal has been made to raise another £850,000 needed to build Oxfordshire’s planned multi-million pound community-owned wind farm.

Backers of the Westmill wind farm at Watchfield, near Shrivenham, have called on their 2,240 members to help raise the cash by the end of the month.

The money is needed to fund an increase in the size of the five turbines, which will power about 2,500 homes.

Backers of the scheme are confident the new sum needed will be raised.

‘Short timescale’

But if the money is not found in time, the scheme – the first wind farm co-operative in the south east of England – will not go ahead and investors will only get back 90% of their money.

A spokesman for the wind farm said the extra money needed to be in the bank by 30 April to “secure delivery of the turbines by January 2008 in order to be trading by April 2008”.

He added: “We believe that despite the short timescale we can raise the required sum.”

Plans for the farm ran into trouble last year when suppliers of the five turbines delayed their delivery date, because of an increase in global demand for eco-friendly energy schemes.

bbc.co.uk

16 April 2007


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2007/04/16/850000-plea-made-for-wind-farm/