Eneco have announced the location of the round 3 offshore wind park located off the Hampshire and Dorset coasts and to the west of the Isle of Wight.
About the location of the wind park:
At the closest point, the wind park will be 8.2 miles (13.2km) away from Peveril Point in Swanage. The northern boundary of the site is located 10.2 miles (16.4km) from Bournemouth and 8.4 miles (13.5km) south west of The Needles and the Isle of Wight coast.
The Zone Appraisal and Planning (ZAP) process:
The decision on the wind park location was reached after Eneco conducted a Zone Appraisal and Planning (ZAP) process in accordance with guidance from The Crown Estate. This is a new non-statutory strategic planning process designed to give developers a view of their zone as a whole. In order to make the decision, feedback from meetings with stakeholders throughout the year and from public information days held in November 2010 was incorporated. Additionally, findings from engineering and environmental surveys also influenced the final location.
Next steps:
Now that the location of the wind park has been identified, Eneco will be holding a series of information days in March 2011 to communicate the results of the ZAP to the general public. These will be held at the following venues:
Weymouth: Pavilion Theatre – Wednesday 16th March 2011
Poole: RNLI Lifeboat College – Thursday 17th March 2011
Newport, Isle of Wight: Quay Arts Centre – Wednesday 23rd March 2011
Lymington: Lymington Community Centre – Thursday 24th March 2011
Christchurch: Regent Centre – Friday 25th March 2011
Bournemouth: Pavilion Theatre – Wednesday 30th March 2011
Swanage: Mowlem Theatre – Thursday 31stMarch 2011
A separate appraisal process is also underway to identify the most feasible cable route to connect the wind park to the National Grid. At present three possible locations have been identified at Chickerell (in Weymouth), Mannington (near Ringwood) and Fawley (near the oil refinery). Consultation on the onshore infrastructure will take place in June 2011. Additionally, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) will begin from May 2011.
In the email below you should find a press release with further information about the location of the offshore wind park.
Attached to this email you should find an image showing where Eneco will be developing within the zone marked out in green
For further information please contact the Eneco press office on 0845 050 3700, email:eneco@mistral-pr.co.ukor visit www.enecowindoffshore.co.uk
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13 comments:
Most interesting. I wonder if the sound of the turbines will increase the "Swanage Hum"? Something else to look at through the binoculars.
HUM, HUM, HUM, but:-
I concur totally with the viewpoint that the wind farm will degrade the esthetical view and have serious detrimental effect on the Jurassic Coast, Coastal Path, Old Harry, Ballard Down, Swanage, and especially Peveril Point.
However, as someone who has been involved in the environment industry, (oil Pollution/recycling since 1960), I ask what of:-
1. The damage to Marine life; fish, dolphins etc from the noise and shock waves of the pile driving into the sea bed when erecting the windmills ?
2. The culling of Migrating birds who fly the shortest route between Peveril Point and Cherbourg (55 miles), who will be killed by the windmill’s blades and disorientated by the vortices of sound coming from the tips of the blades?
3. The ferries trying to access Poole Harbour to/from Cherbourg as well as those to/from The Needles, to/from Southampton, see; http://www.shipais.com/currentmap.php?map=southampton_lehavre ?
4. The sound vortices from the blades will undoubtedly exacerbate the ‘Swanage/Dorset HUM’ as will;
5. The Mains Hum from the power line, which could be brought onshore at Peveril Point to connect to the large multi megawatt generating facility hidden in the Wessex Water Sewage Treatment Plant at Peveril when currently feeds the Grid.
6. The argument (Echo Sat.) that it is preferential to, “a dirty great coal power station on our doorstep” doesn’t equate as we had one on Poole Harbour sitting on the Wytch oil/gas field, (fuel) but this was closed down just before the Wytch Farm came into production….. Planners!?!?!
Robert Owen
Peveril Heights, Swanage
"the large multi megawatt generating facility hidden in the Wessex Water Sewage Treatment Plant"
First I have heard of it. What fuel does it use?
The objections sound like NIMBYisms to me. Perfectly understandable but what are the alternatives? More polluting stations, nuclear, less industry, cold houses? It is very difficult. We want to maintain all the views, protect the birds etc but at the same time carry on with our 21st century ways. Just have to let Government decide I fear, there is no perfect answer.
Is there any good to come out of this? Accommodation for the workers, new boat trips to the wind farm? Small beer though I guess.
Ref: 19th 9-48
We joined the tour of the Sewage Treatment Plant during their ‘Open Day’ about ten years ago. We were shown what was referred to as a ‘back-up generator’ located in the building which runs alongside the Sailing Club, (with the ‘Ski-jump’ camouflaged chimney). The generator occupies about a third of the length of the building to the West and the stainless steel ‘muffle exhaust can be seen on the wall in the yard.
I commented to the tour guide that the generator, a Diesel Caterpillar, Gardner, or Perkins type would estimate would produce several megawatt hours which was far greater than would be needed to back up the equipment in the plant. He said the generator was brought into action remotely either when there was a power cut or if the Grid wanted to buy the output. Nice little earner especially if it was fuelled by methane from the sewage !
That is what I thought. A backup generator. If the power went down without one and the pumps could not pump we would be up to our necks in ...oh never mind, you know what I mean. I work in the High Street and I cannot say I notice tanker truckss delivering diesel hurtling past so unless they have a cunning system for using sewer gas it is just a backup although it would be good for the atmosphere if it was being burnt as methane burns largley to water vapour I understand. Similarly the methane from the old tip is flared off rather than being put to use unfortunately.
We could go for tidal energy instead of placing hundreds of turbines all over the place , just to give out that message " oh look at us here in swanage , we are doing our bit cor the planet nonsense "
Re: windfarms - good or bad?
Wind Turbines vs. Energy Saving - a case study
Most efficientt wind farms would produce about 20 MW a year assuming that a standard 500 kW 150 ft turbine produces about 125 kW - about 25% maximum capacity. modern turbines of 1.5 MW capacity can get up to about 400 kW. The one you metioned at 500 MW seems very high and must be experimental or at very high wind speeds!
There are 1,628,000 houses in the UK with pitched roof and no roof insulation*
3780 kWh of energy are lost by each such house each year.*
Insulation to 1990 Building Regulations standard would save 3375 kWh p.a.*
The annual output of a 750 kW turbine is 1.64 m units.
Insulating 485 houses would save that amount of energy each year.
New funding arrangements will give wind energy a subsidy of 2p per unit.
The annual subsidy of the turbine will be £32,850.
The cost of insulation is a one-off £122 per house, say £60,000 for 485 houses.
Over the 100 year life of the houses, the energy saving cost averages £600 pa
Saving pollution by insulation is 55 times more cost-effective than saving it by wind turbines!
And look at the birds you save!
I am currently undergoing my dissertation of the visual impacts of the proposed wind farm. I am researching into peoples opinions on the wind farm from whether they feel it will benefit the area or ruin the areas beautiful natural scenery. If anyone has a spare couple of minutes please could you fill out my questionnaire for my research, the link is below. I would appreciate anyone’s opinion! Thank you
Link is: http://www.kwiksurveys.com?s=HMKMOF_2ea3c39a
The Isle of White dominates the Eastern Skyline from Purbeck yet it is not as high as the proposed Wind Turbines and almost twice the distance, 14.25 nautical miles, (see Google Earth 'Ruler Tool').
Therefore the Turbines will appear about three times the height of the IOW !
Rob Owen
Let the Govenent remove the huge subsidies, and then we'd see just how many of these white elephants are built.
When I was young, wind pumps could be seen all over the countryside. They have all vanished just like the Windmills that ground the flour. Why? - because both were unreliable sources of power that caused massive problems when the wind failed. What is the point of constucting something that is unreliable?
I am very much in favour of energy production which does not pollute the atmosphere with carbon dioxide. Wind turbines are part of the mix of renewables that will become essential as carbon based fuels become more expensive and the risk of climate change becomes ever more unacceptable. However, a very large turbine installation would have a major environmental impact, one of which is diurnal cooling and heating as air is drawn down from higher atmospheric layers by the turbulance caused by the rotating blades (Professor Somnah Baidya Roy of the University of Illinois)This may be a good thing (for agriculture for example) but it may also cause significant daytime surface cooling downstream from the windfarm. I ask whether the environmental assessment has taken into account ecological factors resulting from local temperature change caused by the proposed windfarm. There could be a negative impact on tourism if summer daytime temperatures drop in this beach recreation area. A reputation for cold onshore winds would be undesirable. If this were to effect Bournemouth it could cost the region quite a lot in lost revenue.
Many of the negative arguements surrounding the windfarm site appear to be based on its location. Any good business model would place such a wind farm development in the best location for the commercial interests of the company operating it, eg in shallow water as near to land as possible. That may not be in the best commercial interests of a major tourist destination.
I would propose that, given that there is widespread support for renewable energy and that there are also reservations regarding the windfarm location, it be moved further offshore to a mutually agreeable place.
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