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Like them or lump them turbines will 'soon be all over Scotland'
December 2, 2008 by Vivienne Nicoll in Evening Times News
December 2, 2008 by Vivienne Nicoll in Evening Times News
People objecting to wind farms were today told like it or lump it. The warning came as Glasgow councillors met and approved a 410ft wind turbine on Cathkin Braes, on the south of the city.
The turbine will be just 49ft lower than the Glasgow Science Tower, which is Scotland's largest freestanding building.
However, the move has sparked concerns about the impact on birds and on an area popular with walkers.
£50m barge loss sets North Wales windfarm back 3 months
November 29, 2008 by Owen R Hughes in Daily Post
November 29, 2008 by Owen R Hughes in Daily Post
KS Titan 1, one of two vessels to be used in the construction of 25 wind turbines at Rhyl Flats, was en route to Liverpool Bay from the Gulf of Mexico when the accident happened at the end of October.
The huge three-legged vessel with two onboard cranes was set to install a series of 3.6-megawatt Siemens wind turbines on Constable Bank, lying five miles off the coast of Llandudno and Colwyn Bay.
The building of an offshore windfarm has had to be halted because of bad weather and the sinking of cranes in the Atlantic.
It means the Rhyl Flats project will now be delayed by up to three months.
It comes after a barge carrying giant cranes to build the turbines sank en route from America in October.
The Scottish Government has overturned a council's rejection of a 22-turbine wind farm in south east Scotland.
Scottish Borders Council turned down the PM Renewables development at Drone Hill near Coldingham a year ago.
However, the company appealed against that decision and a public inquiry was held in August this year.
Tynedale objectors prepare for battle over wind farm
November 18, 2008 by Brian Daniel in The Journal
November 18, 2008 by Brian Daniel in The Journal
The latest controversial wind farm plan for Northumberland will to be heard at a public inquiry in January. Npower renewables' bid to erect six turbines at Kiln Pit Hill will go before a government planning inspector at a hearing in Tynedale Council chamber in Hexham, beginning on January 6.
The inquiry follows the company's appeal to the Secretary of State over the council's failure to determine its application, originally entered in 2006, within planning timeframes.
Tynedale agreed to formally oppose the application in July having received a petition signed by more than 200 objectors, as well as 91 letters.
The future of a major offshore wind farm in north Norfolk was under threat last night after the company behind it admitted it needed a new investor. ...Scira, originally set up by joint investors StatoilHydro and Evelop, had hoped to begin constructing the 88-turbine farm in 2009 and have the project up and running by 2011.
A spokesman for the company confirmed it was looking for a new investor and admitted the credit crunch was proving an obstacle to that - meaning it could not commit to the future of the project.
The Cirrus Energy Shell Flat Array offshore wind farm would have comprised 90 turbines and an installed capacity of up to 284MW Plans for a 280MW offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea have been abandoned because of concerns about aviation, after five years of planning and a change of location to accommodate nature campaigners.
It has emerged that developer Cirrus Energy has withdrawn its application for the Shell Flat offshore wind farm.
A barge worth £50 million toppled into the sea and sank as it was being towed to the site of an offshore North Wales windfarm.
Work on the controversial Rhyl Flats windfarm will now be delayed as a result.
The barge was carrying giant cranes set to carry out vital work at the windfarm when it was lost overboard and sank to the bottom of the Atlantic.
Turbines at £50m Scout Moor wind farm grind to halt
November 12, 2008 by Alex Willmott in Lancashire Telegraph
November 12, 2008 by Alex Willmott in Lancashire Telegraph
An electrical fault has caused turbines at a £50m windfarm to grind to a halt.
About a third of Scout Moor Wind Farm's 26 turbines have not been working as a result of the problem.
Engineers have said that the wind farm will be fully operational shortly but local councillors have criticised its ‘lack of efficiency'.
Coun Darryl Smith said: "It's a travesty to see the static turbines on the hills.
Energy giant BP has scrapped plans to build an offshore wind farm near the Isle of Grain after redirecting the bulk of its £5 billion renewable budget to the US, Yourmedway reports.
The company said the US market was more appealing than the UK's with government incentives for green energy projects enticing them across the Atlantic.
A BP spokesman said: "The best place to get a strong rate of return for wind is the US."
The Department for Transport has told the wind energy industry that shipping operators have serious concerns about plans to build thousands of huge wind turbines out at sea in a bid to meet the Government's ambitious renewable energy targets.
Cargo ship owners and yachting groups fear the turbines, which will in some cases be more than 600 ft tall - as high as three Nelson's Columns - will pose a navigation hazard in already-busy stretches of water. ..."We encourage all windfarm developers to enter into early dialogue with the Chamber of Shipping so that any issues can be addressed early in the planning process."
British oil major Royal Dutch Shell has denied a report that it has withdrawn from the UK wind energy sector by agreeing to sell its stake in a project off the Blackpool coast to partners Scottish Power and Denmark's Dong Energy. ...However, he [a spokesman] added that the project was under review because of safety concerns for aircraft in the area.
Protesters against plans for 19 wind turbines each more than 400ft high on "West Glamorgan's last wilderness" have joined a new European-wide campaign against wind energy schemes.
Opponents of proposals by npower renewables (sponsors of The Ospreys rugby team) for the wind turbines on common land on hills at Mynydd y Gwair north of Swansea say the project will ruin the upland area which has remained unchanged for hundreds of years.
Save our Common Environment (Socme), which is fighting the plans, has joined the European Platform against Windfarms representing growing disenchantment with the schemes.
Also filed under [
Europe]
Residents in an East Yorkshire village are being urged to join an action group against plans for a wind farm on their doorstep.
Fears about homes being devalued has led to opposition to a scheme for a five-turbine wind farm on land at Sancton, near Market Weighton.
Sancton Windfarm Action Team (Swat) was set up after a ballot of villagers at a public meeting showed that 85 were against - and just 29 for - the development.
Energy firms 'offering sweeteners to communities' to get permission for wind farms
October 8, 2008 in Daily Mail
October 8, 2008 in Daily Mail
Energy firms are undermining the planning process by offering sweeteners worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to communities living in the shadow of new wind farms, critics claim today.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England says growing numbers of 'goodwill payments', which include sports pitches, play areas or pensioners' lunch clubs, bring the planning system into disrepute.
Such gestures could 'be seen as akin to buying planning permission' and should be banned, it said.
Wind farm developers offering 'bribes' to local communities, campaigners say
October 7, 2008 by Louise Gray in Telegraph.co.uk
October 7, 2008 by Louise Gray in Telegraph.co.uk
Developers are "bribing" communities to back wind farms by offering to pay for lunch clubs for pensioners and children's play parks, according to campaigners.
The Campaign for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) say at least 35 communities have been offered so called "goodwill" payments - one for every English region - by developers interested on building wind farms in the area. ...However, developers say the payments are a transparent and routine part of "corporate social responsibility" which offers money to the community where large scale developments are planned.
Rumours that giant wind turbines at Camber are sinking into the marsh have been scotched.
Neale East, of the Wind Farm Liaison Group, said: "No they are not sinking. There is no truth in this whatsoever.
"All 26 turbines are now up and the next construction work to take place will be putting up three metereological masts.
Also filed under [
Safety]
The battle lines have been drawn up over plans to build a wind farm on a tract of farmland in Bower.
Unanimous opposition was tabled to the proposed 13-turbine venture at Durran Mains by 60 or so residents who attended a meeting on Friday evening organised by a local protest group.
The forum was arranged in the wake of the lodging of a planning application for the 19.5 megawatt development.
The Crown Estate, which owns almost all of the UK's sea bed for 12 nautical miles, is in the process of leasing out large tracts of it to developers. The largest of the planned wind farms, the London Array east of the Thames estuary ...A recent report by a committee of MPs showed that in most of the remote locations where wind farms are being built, there is no access to the national grid. In some places, developers are facing 12-year delays before they can be connected.
Each turbine would stand 137m (449ft) high.
Wind energy consultant Geoffrey Sinclair said that would make them taller than any currently on mainland UK.
As part of the project npower plans to fund a major habitat restoration project in the area.
The turbines at Carnedd Wen will have the capacity to generate between 130 and 195 megawatts ...