A 250 turbine wind farm planned to be built about 10 miles offshore in Wales has just been approved. The project will (hopefully) begin feeding electricity to the grid in 2012, and will have a peak power production of 750 MW, enough to power around 680,000 Welsh homes.
The project was approved by the new Department of Energy and Climate Change. This agency has some pretty unprecedented power in terms of approving renewable energy projects. Though there was some concerns among local citizens about the "visual impact" of the farm, the DECC fast-tracked the project without approval from the locals.
This is, of course, what the UK needs to do in order to achieve their targets for renewable energy. Here in America, where we've been arguing for almost a decade about whether or not to put wind turbines off the coast of Cape Cod, we might do well to learn a lesson or two from the UK.
Adding this project to other planned and approved farms will give the UK a total of 4.5 gigawatts of new power from renewable sources. Of course, that still won't be enough to meet their goals, but it's certainly a good start.
Via TreeHugger and the BBC
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written by Clark, December 09, 2008
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written by Global Patriot, December 09, 2008
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written by David Phillips, Anglesey Today Webmaster, January 11, 2009
The 750 MW renewable energy project which will have the capacity to produce green electricity for thousands of homes over Wales will consist of a mega 250 wind turbine farm about 10 miles north of the coastal resort of Llandudno.
And it is this potential visual impact that has motivated another environmental group called "Save our Scenery" to demand a judicial review in an attempt to overturn the approval given by the UK Government Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
Friends of the Earth Cymru says that the Gwynt Y Mor project should go ahead because it would meet 10 per cent of Wales's electricity consumption and save around 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.
SEA, a pro-wind campaign group in North Wales said the UK was way behind other countries in developing green energy wind farms.
Because the application for this wind farm is for combined output of 750 MW, the responsibility rests with the UK government at Westminster.
The Welsh Assembly in Cardiff only controls energy installations with capacity of 50MW or less.
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