1.UK-2GW of wind

The start up of the 32 turbine 72 MW Braes O’Doune wind farm on the outskirts of Stirling in Scotland has taken the UK to more than 2GW of total wind generating capacity. Getting the UK’s second gigawatt of installed capacity took only 20 months after it reached the 1 GW mark- and getting to that had taken 14 years, so the growth rate has at long last picked up.

Eddie O’Connor, CEO of Airtricity, who developed the Braes O’Doune project in conjunction with Vestas Celtic and Alfred McAlpine, commented: ‘Wind energy replaces fossil fuel when the wind is blowing and so saves the cost of buying the fuel. Wind is free. Wind energy has a fixed price and so mitigates the risk of fossil fuel price fluctuations. In a study carried out on the Scottish market it has been shown that the customer gets a reduction in price of 6% because of the risk reduction that wind entails. Such a large amount of wind means that the spot price of fossil fuels is reduced. If the wind blows strongly for a long winter period (as happens each year) then the price of next summer’s fossil fuels is reduced. More wind means that carbon fines are foregone and the world is made into a safer place.’

Nearly 1GW of the UK’s wind capacity is in Scotland- where last year it expanded by 67%. .

…and more soon offshore

Construction on the 180 MW Lynn and Inner Dowsing offshore wind farm in the Greater Wash is under way, and the 500MW Greater Gabbard 140 turbine wind farm off the Suffolk coast, developed by Airtricity and Fluor, has now been given the go ahead by the DTI. It will be close to two shallow sandbanks- the Inner Gabbard and the Galloper- around 12 miles from the shore, and will occupy an area of nearly 150 sq km within the outer Thames Estuary strategic wind farm area.

Eclipse offshore wind

The world’s first combined wind and gas offshore energy project has been given green light. The unique 200MW Ormonde project from Eclipse Energy will be sited 10km from Walney Island near Barrow in Furness, with a wind farm of up to 30 turbines, backed up by a conventional gas turbine, using gas pumped from two fields in nearby Morecambe Bay, for which DTI approval has also been sought. The gas turbine would cut in when wind was low, and the combined system would be economic since it shared infrastructure. See Renew 160.

*A Eurobarometer survey last year found that 63% of people in the UK favoured windpower and only 5% opposed it. But the BWEA has reported that 12 out of 18 recent wind farm proposals had failed to gain planning consent.