Caerphilly County Borough Council is working with renewable energy developer Partnerships for Renewables, to investigate the potential of building two wind turbines on land designated for a sustainable business park at Oakdale, Caerphilly.
Councillor Ron Davies, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Countryside said, “The council has an ambitious sustainable regeneration strategy in place and we are committed to the concept of ‘Living Better, Using Less.’ Investigating wind energy is a vital part of our future energy mix and we are proud to have the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to meeting renewable energy targets and promoting sustainability.”
“We announced our intention to investigate wind energy potential in the area in September 2009 and we are pleased that this project is progressing well with our new partners. We are obviously keen to involve local residents in the process so consultation will form a key part at every stage of the development. Both Caerphilly County Borough Council and Partnerships for Renewables are committed to open and honest engagement and we look forward to working with the community to deliver these exciting proposals.”
Tony Duffin, Regional Manager at Partnerships for Renewables commented: “We are still at the early stages of investigating the site at Oakdale Business Park, but initial studies suggest it could be suitable for up to two wind turbines with a generating capacity of 2.5 megawatts each. This could generate around 11 gigawatt hours (GWh) of green electricity every year, enough to power 2,400 homes*.”
Mr Duffin continues: “We expect to submit a planning application for a monitoring mast to gather wind speed data in the next two weeks. If all our ongoing studies prove positive and the decision is taken to progress with a development at the site we would expect to be ready to submit a planning application in March 2011 at the earliest.”
As part of the development process the possibility of feeding electricity directly to local businesses based at the business park is being explored. This would ensure that as well as contributing towards national targets, the turbines will benefit communities and businesses locally, by providing reduced price electricity.
Partnerships for Renewables will be inviting interest groups and other stakeholders to contribute towards the scoping report, which will be submitted shortly as part of the development process. This outlines the study methodologies we plan to adopt during the site assessment process and will be reviewed by statutory consultees who will suggest any changes they deem necessary to ensure that any future Environmental Impact Assessment considers all of the relevant site issues.
A public exhibition – to introduce the proposal and the project team to the community – will be held on September 8, 2010 from 2pm to 7pm at Harley’s Lodge, Islwyn Road, Oakdale, Gwent, NP12 0LG.
For further information about the site and the types of environmental and technical investigations involved, please visit the Partnerships for Renewables website.
* Note: The environmental benefit figures are based on two 2.5 megawatt turbines, operating with a 25% capacity factor; average household electricity use of 4700kWh per annum; and the electricity generated displacing electricity generated from CCGT / average fuel mix – approx. 430gCO2/kWh.
