BREAKING NEWS - Secretary of State gives the go-ahead for 22-turbine wind farm at Heckington Fen | Sleaford Standard | 8 February 2013 | www.sleafordstandard.co.uk
Plans for up to 22 windmills at Heckington Fen in Lincolnshire have been approved by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.
Britain’s first green energy company, Ecotricity, has spent four years of research, planning and consultation to gain approval for their largest wind park to date, with the 66MW project producing enough green electricity each year to power almost 40,000 homes.
Plans for up to 22 windmills at Six Hundres Farm, Heckington Fen, have been approved by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.
With a generating capacity above 50MW, the proposal is considered to be infrastructure of national importance, with such planning applications determined by central government under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989.
Ecotricity founder Dale Vince said: “Heckington Fen is a superb location for a wind park, probably the best we’ve ever seen.
“The planning department from North Kesteven District Council recommended the application for approval and we had no objections from any of the statutory consultee’s such as English Hertitage, RSPB or Natural England. That’s quite rare and a sign of what a strong project this is.
“Heck Fen will make a significant contribution to Britain’s energy supply, powering the equivalent of almost 40,000 homes for the next 25 years and will reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels, which are the primary source of the Britain’s carbon emissions.
“We’re grateful to the Secretary of State for his decision in the face of considerable political hot air right now on the subject of windmills, and we’d also like to thank the many people in the local community that wrote letters of support for the project.”
Heckington Fen Wind Park will save almost 60,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere each year.
Ecotricity submitted its plans in December 2009. It went ot a public inquiry last summer following an objection from North Kesteven District Council. An independent Planning Inspector scrutinised the details of the application before making their recommendation to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey.
* More on this story in Wednesday’s Sleaford Standard.
URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/02/08/secretary-of-state-gives-the-go-ahead-for-22-turbine-wind-farm-at-heckington-fen/