Planning your community wind
power project
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Checking out the big picture
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- Important
Please note. All of this is general advice. Make sure you have a
sound project yourself. We cannot accept financial
liability for projects or parts thereof!
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| We assume,
here, that you are planning a commercial project using machines that have
a hub height of at least around 50 metres, which means one or more
machines of 600 KW and above. Generally speaking the most cost effective
wind turbines are roughly in the 1.3 MW to 2 MW range. 2 MW machines will
have a hub height of close to 70 metres, and a blade diameter of around 80
metres. |
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| We are pleased to answer
questions. However, we want to give priority to those who are seriously
intending to organise commercially sized wind power schemes (that is under
the Renewable Obligation rather than the small Clear Skies
Government programme). Please note also that your friendly wind generator
manufacturer and their agents are only too pleased to answer questions
from people who are considering buying their turbines |
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| There is actually no clear
answer to this: it depends, apart from anything else, at what the grid
connection conditions are. Sometimes a relatively small windfarm will have
low grid connection costs, sometimes not. But from the point of view of
making a cooperative share offer, something in the range of 1 MW to 6 MW
is likely to be practical on current UK experience. |
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| Usually, in
a relatively developed area, schemes in this range will have low grid
connection costs, but out in the middle of the Welsh or Scottish
countryside it may be more expensive. Access (getting equipment in) is
more likely to be a problem in the most rural areas. One point needs to be
emphasised: THE LARGER MACHINES HAVE TALLER TOWERS WHICH CAN HELP TO
EXTRACT HIGH WINDSPEEDS. Smaller machines may be cheaper, but this is
likely to be greatly outweighed by the much reduced flow of income because
of much lower electricity production. |
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The
most important issue of them all is whether you have a site with a good
enough windspeed. In fact, given the good incentives available under the
Renewable Obligation, a very large proportion of the UK is now
potentially viable for wind power in economic terms. Generally speaking
(note the word generally), if total capital costs are no more than
around £850/KW, then hub height windspeeds of over 6.5 m/s may be good
candidates to be viable for a community windfarm share offer. |
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You can get an
estimate of windspeeds from a NOABL database hosted on the British Wind Energy
Association (BWEA) website. See this on http://www.bwea.com/noabl/gridref.htm
. If you are
truly befuddled by this, but are otherwise determined to organise you own
scheme if possible, e mail toke1952@yahoo.co.uk
for a windspeed estimate and some general comments. A general rule of thumb may be that if the database says that the windspeed at 45m height is 6.2 m/s then the windspeed at say, 67 metres hub height, may be around 6.5 m/s. It should be noted that the NOABL database is averaged over 1 km squares so that sites which are above average height for that square will be more likely than not to have a slightly higher windspeed than the average given for that square. Similarly, sites at a below average height are likely to have lower than average windspeeds for that square.
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| In the UK the merchant banks that finance the mainstream
developers
demand onsite windspeed measurements at high heights (for at least
12 months) as a precondition for lending money for wind power
projects. This is a an expensive exercise. It may be
possible to look at cheaper means of evaluating windspeeds in the
case of a wind power scheme that is to be funded by a community
share offer. For example, it may be possible to evaluate local
meteorological data and windspeed data collected by local companies
(as is done for various reasons). However, this should only be done on the basis of
expert advice and the support of a backer that is experienced in
financing community windpower schemes. On the European continent
there is often much less emphasis on very expensive windspeed
measurements compared to the UK. Certainly, with greater sharing of data
between wind power operators and prospective developers in the same
area, it should be possible to produce good estimates of
windspeeds and energy production without the necessity of onsite
measurements using tall masts - certainly in relatively flat places
like many parts of the East of England. The Community Wind Power
Network hopes to promote such co-operation which can only but help
the UK wind industry as a whole. If it is absolutely necessary to do
onsite wind speed measurements it might be desirable to delay onsite
windspeed measurements until after the local authority has given the
main consent to the planning application. This will delay the
project, but then planning details usually take some time to tie up
in negotiations with planning officers, so the delay may not in fact
be significant. |
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| Making A Planning Application to the Local
Authority |
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Community wind power schemes are also likely to pay rather lower sums for
making planning applications to local authorities, compared to big
developers. It cost Adam Twine around 20,000 pounds to make a
planning application for the 6.5 MW community wind power scheme that was
given consent in October 2004 which, in fact, is quite low compared to
what the big developers will tend to spend for a scheme of similar size. It may be possible to raise some of the
development costs through grants, and it has proved possible to waive the need to do an expensive landscape character
assessment in respect of at least one 2MW proposal that we have heard
of to produce very low costs for a
commercial wind power planning application. Certainly the commitment made by the Government to support community schemes (see our mission statement) should
be a powerful lever to persuade planning authorities to minimise planning
application costs for a proposed community wind power scheme. But you must
still be prepared to raise quite a lot of cash! |
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| There are certain elements of a planning application which are going to be unavoidable for a
commercially-sized wind power proposal. You will need to conduct
noise tests and have at least one photomontage prepared. You will
need to have conducted research on potential shadow flicker impacts
and also possible impacts on telecommunications and the local
ecology (especially birds). In the countryside there is usually
great pressure from bodies like the Campaign for the Protection of
Rural England to produce landscape character assessments, although
the extant and nature of such exercises will be negotiable with the
local authority. These are all parts of what are known as
'Environmental Impact Statements' (EIS), although what this means
can vary tremendously, and there is a very good case for setting
these aside in the case of single machine proposals. Planning fees,
which are assessed on the basis of acerage of the project, can also
be subject to differing interpretations, although the planning fees for just one (say 2MW) scheme should be very low since it
will not take up much ground. For a community wind power
scheme a good strategy may be to stress the to the planning officer
the advice in the Government's PPS22 about favouring schemes which
involve the community (in this case though ownership of the scheme).
This means that they should interpret policy to reduce the amount of
risk-capital that community schemes have to pay through planning
fees and environmental impact statements. Corporate players can
produce an expensive EIS, but this does not mean that their
applications are necessarily 'high quality'? Surely a very important criteria for a
'high quality' application is one that involves links with the
community? - After all, very few members of the public will
actually read the EIS, but they will be greatly influenced by the
links and benefits to the local community of the proposed scheme. If
the local authorities insist on a 'full' EIS then you should engage
in a 'scoping' exercise, that is circulating interested groups to
ask them what they want. This will still be a lot cheaper than
simply producing anything and everything that may be needed in
theory. |
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Before you lodge your
planning permission, you need to check out whether the Ministry of Defence
(MOD), civil aviation authorities and telecommunications will object.
Initial rejection does not always mean that you cannot do anything. You
can negotiate with them, but agreement is essential before you can
commission the project. It is a very simple procedure to do these
consultations. |
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You can
usually get some free general advice from consultants who deal in
communications matters – and they can could brief you on what sort of initial
objections you might be able to deal with satisfactorily after you have got your
local authority planning consent. Remember, the authorities are
liable act
cautiously, as a routine response! |
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However, you can get answers
from all of the following people for free! Yes, for free! You have to send six digit national grid reference of wind turbines and height
of turbines (and map showing position) to: |
All Telemetry,
and broadcasting:
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Write to:
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Gary Blaevoef, |
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Ofcom, |
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Riverside
House, |
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2A Southwark
Bridge Road, |
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London SE1 9HA |
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Tel: 0207 981
3089/3142 |
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Civil Aviation
Authority: More details from: 01932 704200
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Defence radar:
write for proforma details to:
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Radar
Safeguarding |
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Defence
Estates, |
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Central
Business Unit, |
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Kingson Road, |
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Sutton
Coldfield, |
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B75 7RC |
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Tel 0121 311 3847 |
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Grid connection costs
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You will need (at some stage) to obtain an estimate of grid
connection costs. Call your electricity distribution network
operators and ask for the new connections department. You
should be able to obtain a costing for a relatively small fee. You will need to connect either to an 11 Kv power line or a 33 Kv power line. You can see these lines running across the countryside. They are the smaller lines, not to be confused with the major transmission cables. You cannot connect schemes of the 1 MW to 6 MW size to the major transmission cables. 11 Kv power lines are the most local power lines, but note that you can only connect to a 3 phase power line (one with three wires) rather than a single phase line (one with two wires). The 33 Kv lines look more substantial than the 11 Kv lines. Please note that even these power lines are not always available for connection to a wind power scheme (their capacity might be fully utilised for some purpose). As a
rule of thumb, in cheap projects, grid connection costs will be
around 10 per cent of total capital costs. The wind generator
manufacturer and their agents can advise you on project cost
structures, and related issues such as requirements for access and
the approximate costs of civil engineering works that may be needed.
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Remember the local people!
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You will need to jump
through lots of administrative hoops for planning permission purposes,
but do not let this blind
you from the crucial need to obtain (very) local political support
- and you need to have a tolerant attitude from the planning
officer. As you see from the
research on 'Wind Power
planning statistics' page you will have a high chance
of being given local authority consent if there is no objection from the
local parish council (community council in Wales) and there is support
from the planning officer. If the planning officer tells you that they will
recommend refusal, then there is a
95 chance the proposal will be refused at local authority level. We
need to aim for a position where a much higher proportion of wind power
planning applications are for locally owned and locally inspired schemes.
In the case of locally inspired proposals for locally owned projects the
local farmers and/or activists will use their own social networks to advance the cause for
getting planning consent. This will improve the planning environment in
the UK and achieve higher levels of installed wind power capacity. |
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Remember that the attitude of the residents in the
immediate vicinity of the proposal is crucial. First you have to get some
precise details for your scheme worked out, and you have to assess the
local environmental impact of your proposed scheme. Once you have got
information to answer key questions, that may be the time to gather
your known supporters and assemble a group of local people who can go
around lobbying local people, the local parish council(s) and the local authority councillors
in favour of a scheme that is
owned by local people. Think of incentives that can be offered to local
people (eg via the local parish council), although you must be careful to cost everything carefully.
If the project could be linked to a local business, then that would be
ideal (and very lucky!). The
standard royalty for the landowner is 2 per cent of gross income. |
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If your scheme comes in a cost of no more than around 850 pounds per KW and the
wind speed is at least 6.5 m/s then it is likely to be a good candidate
for a community share offer (see page on financing). Shares
would be offered to the public, with preference given to local people.
Each individual could buy shares of value, say, between £250 and £20,000.
Shareholders would receive a dividend and get their original investment
back after a given period, say 20 years. The precise details will be
decided by negotiation with the company organising the share offer. A
local co-operative will have to be formally established. You can discuss
the details of this with Energy4All, who are the main company organising
such activities for fully commercial projects in the UK. They will have
the final say over what they will support. |
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Your friendly wind generator manufacturer will help you on this! Once
you have got planning permission and raised the money the rest should
follow. |
