I recently posted a response to the question raised by some opposing Totnes Community Wind Farm (TCWF) on Sarah Wollastons’ (MP) website:
“I’m glad the issue of scale has been raised. They are large to produce as much renewable energy as possible. It would take 92 turbines of the size proposed at Foales Leigh (50kW – 46m to tip) to produce as much as the two turbines in our proposal (at max. capacity – not taking into account a lower capacity factor).Surely the cumulative impact (noise, energy, landscape) of that number is much larger?
This also serves to show the huge loss of generation when reducing the size of the turbine – half the height but only 2.2% of the capacity (compared with one 2.3MW turbine). They are connected to the national grid because of the large amount of electricity produced – so it can go where the demand is. At present there is no other alternative local grid available. The scale of the community chosen – Totnes and its environs – was so that the necessary investment, skills and resources could be sourced. At a village scale it simply wouldn’t be possible to carry out a development of this size – £6million, 4.6MW – enough for 2500 homes.”
I hope this contains some insight for those involved in the conversation. I certainly learned something during the process.
Olly Frankland.