February 28, 2014
England

Permission granted for wind turbine in Duckmanton

28 February 2014 hvnplus.co.uk

Chesterfield councillors have recently voted unanimously to grant planning permission for a co-operatively owned wind turbine at Duckmanton, the Chesterfield Post reported.

The turbine will be sited on former colliery land owned by Harworth Estates.

Four Winds Energy Co-operative (4Winds) has been formed to own and manage the turbine, together with a similar one on another former colliery site near Barnsley.

Duckmanton Primary Schoolon Wednesday 12 March at 7:30pm, so that local people can find out all about the co-operative and how they can be part of it.

The Co-op aims to get local people as involved as possible so that the financial benefits can remain local.

The Co-op will work towards a share offer, where local people will be invited to invest, to get the finance to put up the turbines.

Once running, the electricity is sold, the bills are paid and the surplus is used to contribute to a community fund and pay interest to the co-op members. In this way renewable energy is produced but the financial benefits remain in the area.

The idea of co-operatively owned wind turbines started in Britain in the mid 1990’s with Baywind, which owns and runs six turbines in Cumbria.

There are now two other established wind co-ops in England with their own turbines and 5 co-ops in Scotland. Drumlin Co-op in Northern Ireland is currently constructing its turbines and will be generating soon.

A solar co-op is being launched this Spring. Others are on the way.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2014/02/28/permission-granted-for-wind-turbine-in-duckmanton/