Mixed reaction to wind farm plan
A Generic Photo of wind turbines. See PA Feature LIFESTYLE Eco Homes. PA Photo/Generic.
PLANS to build five wind turbines on the outskirts of Milton Keynes have been given the thumbs-up by a local environmental group.
Friends of the Earth is in favour of the plans revealed in last week’s Citizen to build the wind farm between Little Linford and Haversham.
A scoping request was lodged at the council by Entec UK Ltd in January, and background noise tests have been carried out in the area.
Richard Foster-Fletcher, co-ordinator for Friends of the Earth Milton Keynes said: “We are delighted to hear that there could be the opportunity for Milton Keynes to significantly increase its natural and renewable energy production through new wind turbines near Haversham.
“Milton Keynes has long stood for green innovation from building the UK’s first solar powered house to being the first place to adopt kerbside recycling collection.
“This future proofing has gathered pace in the last two years with recent support given to the Joined-Cities Plan promoting the use of Electric Cars, the new Network Rail building which is designed to be one of the most sustainable in Britain, the carbon cuts promised by the council and, of course, our existing wind farm near Emberton.
“These turbines will power up to 6,000 homes and bring more jobs to Milton Keynes.
“New technology means these turbines will be quiet, efficient and return the investment in around six months by generating electricity for 80 to 85 per cent of the time.
“The turbines will be yet another symbol of innovation in Milton Keynes, showing that we set a green example for other cities to follow.”
However, the plans have not been entirely popular among residents of Milton Keynes.
Dr Dan Andrews, of Great Linford, said: “They typically produce only a tiny fraction of their rated power, and produce this power at the wrong times.
“They were useless in the cold spell before Christmas; there was little wind, and the turbines actually need to be electrically heated to prevent them failing in the cold – during the cold spell there were times when all of the country’s wind turbines combined were providing precisely no energy to the grid, and were actually taking electricity from the grid to keep warm.
“I’m not quite sure what the word is for a power station that takes in more electricity than it provides, but I’m sure that word isn’t ‘efficient’.”
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Weather for Milton Keynes
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
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richff
Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 04:03 PMGiven it's estimated to be about 30 years before nuclear power stations have generated sufficient energy to pay back the initial energycarbon investment, I think we can probably excuse a few weeks of wind turbine inaction due to cold weather.
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