First wind farm going up
West Norfolk's first power generating wind farm is about to be constructed.
Sections of the eight turbine towers, capable of producing enough power between them for 8,000 to 10,000 homes, have begun arriving on giant lorries ready to go up from the start of October.
Police escorts have been needed for the convoys because of the size of the blades, gearboxes and other components, as each of the towers weighs 220 tonnes.
It has been more than two years since Breckland Council gave planning consent for the wind farm on the remote 5.7 acre site at North Pickenham where residents were praised for being IMBYs – in my back yard – after backing the plans.
Normally such proposals attract opposition from NIMBYs – not in my back yard – but North Pickenham Parish Council raised no objection, and there was also support from the village's Breckland and Norfolk county councillors.
David Linley, project manager for Enertrag UK, the company behind the wind farm, said it took two years to reach this stage because delivery time on turbines was now 14 months upwards, as the USA had cornered the market.
There had also been financing to arrange and sorting out the grid connection with EDF Energy, as well as tendering and awarding the contract. Ground works have been in progress for four months.
"I think that's not too bad – it can take up to five years to get these projects done," he said.
Mr Linley said the first five sections of tower arrived last weekend. Each turbine will have three tower sections, as well as a hub and three giant blades.
A 650-tonne crawler crane from Holland will be brought in sections to the airfield then put together and used to help put up the two-megawatt turbines, in a construction phase likely to take about four weeks, he said.
The steel tower sections were coming from Campbelltown, near Glasgow, by road, and the blades were being shipped over from Denmark to Yarmouth and then being transported by road.
"Fortunately, we have quite a bit of room on site to store all these components," he said. "Each of the tower sections is 28 metres (92ft) long, up to 4.5 metres (15ft)
in diameter and weighs about 45 tonnes."
The North Pickenham turbines will be similar in size to the second Swaffham turbine, at 280ft to the hub, and the wind farm will help reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 50,600 tonnes annually.
When planning consent was given for the wind farm in July, 2004, Breckland councillor Mrs Gill Ball, who represents North Pickenham and lives in the village, said she was glad that common sense had prevailed.
She pointed out that a landscape assessment had shown that the site was one that could accommodate wind turbines.
And North Pickenham's county councillor Mr Ian Monson was "very pleased" that it got the go-ahead as he considered the airfield an appropriate site for the project. "These wind turbines are very graceful and don't detract from the landscape," he said.
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Weather for King's Lynn
Sunday 27 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 26 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
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