Wind farm at RAF Harrington

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Wind farm at RAF Harrington

• Public meeting
• Maidwell
• 17th September 2008

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What is it?

• A proposal from Nuon Renewables Ltd to build a
  wind farm at RAF Harrington
• Will erect 8 x 125m high turbines, each with a
  maximum output of 2.5MW (million watts, or
  megawatts)

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How high is 125m?

• 410 feet!
• Burton Wold turbines are 99.5m
• Centre Point in London is 117m
• The London Eye is 135m and at
• 127.5m the Northampton Lighthouse is more or
  less the same

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How much energy will be harvested?

• In this area of low winds speeds, the turbines
  will struggle to do better than 20-25 of the
  maximum, so giving about 43,800 megawatt hours
  of power
• Sizewell B nuclear station last year produced 8.9
  Terawatt hours or what 203 similar wind farms
  might generate
• Most large coal fired stations are rated at
  1000-2000MW capacity

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Economics

• So little energy?
• Why is onshore wind generation being pushed so
  hard?
• Who pays?
• Who profits?

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Where will it be?
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or from the air
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(No Transcript)
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Dilemma?

• We all see the sense in renewable energy
• None of us want to be NIMBYs
• The question is whether or not this development,
  at this place, with this technology, and at this
  time, is sensible

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Will it create a nuisance and if so why?
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Landscape

• Oxendon, Kelmarsh, Maidwell Square Norman
  towers with arrow slits, thatched pubs, tiny
  Victorian railways stations, nesting in a bosky
  countryside of high hedges and dense copses. It
  was enough to make you want to beak into a chorus
  of Therell always be an England
• Robert Harris ENIGMA, (Arrow Books 1996) page273

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Will it be visible?

• It is hard to imagine concrete towers of this
  height
• but go and have a look!

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Noise, health, shadow flicker and so on?
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There is no clear limitation on the distance of
turbines from dwellings, despite clear medical
evidence that turbines within 1.2 km (in some
cases 1.5 km) from habitations have caused
medical problems. In France the ruling is 2 km.
in the USA figures of 1.5 and 2.0 miles (in
California) have been mentioned. Companion Guide
to PPS 22 at para. 37, page 166, simply asks "Is
the site constrained by a population centre, or
scattered dwellings?"
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Blue Circles - 1.2 km - Clear medical evidence of
problems Black Circles - 2.0 km - As in
France Red Circles - 4 km (2.5 miles) -
Striking visual impact, subject to topography
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Other impacts
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Local Amenities

• Harrington Museum and Monument?
• Brampton Valley Way?
• Ecology?
• Public rights of way? British Horse Society
  recommends a minimum of 3 times the height or
  375m from bridleways

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Into the future

• Grid connection pylons?
• More turbines, as at Burton Wold?
• Effect on house sales and prices?

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Cumulative effects

• Cumulative effects are also required to be taken
  into account where not only two or more wind
  energy developments are visible from the same
  point, but also are visible shortly after each
  other along the same journey. Thus just because
  no other sites are visible from the proposed wind
  energy development site it should not be assumed
  there are not cumulative effects. (Companion
  Guide to PPS 22 para. 5.23, page 62)

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There are at least NINE other proposals within a
few miles of the section of A14 from Kettering to
Catthorpe