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Wind Farm April 2005
As most people are probably now aware, plans are being progressed to build a large wind farm close to Hutton Cranswick. The developer, Renewable Energy Systems (RES), is proposing to place 43 giant wind turbines in the development between Hutton Cranswick, Skerne and North Frodingham.
RES is still undecided on the final details of the wind farm. The plans will not be finalised until they have made detailed measurements of the wind conditions in the area and looked into many issues surrounding the precise location and construction of the wind turbines. Their current plans are for 90m high (295 ft) turbines. It can be hard to visualise what this will actually look like – the drawing below compares the height of a 90m turbine against two local landmarks: Hutton Church tower and Beverley Minster. One way of appreciating the likely size of the wind turbines is to look across to your left as you drive towards Cranswick from Driffield, on the main road. You can clearly see Hutton Church tower to the left and if you imagine the wind turbines will be around six times the height of the Church tower, you can get a feel for what they would look like.
Each of the wind turbines will be capable of generating 1.3 MW of electricity, so the whole development has a potential output power of 55.9 MW. However, because the wind is not always strong enough (or sometimes too strong), the turbines do not operate anywhere near their maximum output and the effective actual output will only be around 17 MW. To put this into perspective, the Drax power station near Selby (a traditional “fossil fuel” coal-burning power station) generates around 4000 MW of electricity, which is over 200 times more than the whole of the proposed wind farm development.
The wind turbines are clearly an issue which will have a huge effect on the whole village and, indeed, the whole area. Whether you are for or against the proposed development, it is something we all need to be informed about and make sure we have our say.
Matthew Pickles
As most people are probably now aware, plans are being progressed to build a large wind farm close to Hutton Cranswick. The developer, Renewable Energy Systems (RES), is proposing to place 43 giant wind turbines in the development between Hutton Cranswick, Skerne and North Frodingham.
RES is still undecided on the final details of the wind farm. The plans will not be finalised until they have made detailed measurements of the wind conditions in the area and looked into many issues surrounding the precise location and construction of the wind turbines. Their current plans are for 90m high (295 ft) turbines. It can be hard to visualise what this will actually look like – the drawing below compares the height of a 90m turbine against two local landmarks: Hutton Church tower and Beverley Minster. One way of appreciating the likely size of the wind turbines is to look across to your left as you drive towards Cranswick from Driffield, on the main road. You can clearly see Hutton Church tower to the left and if you imagine the wind turbines will be around six times the height of the Church tower, you can get a feel for what they would look like.
Each of the wind turbines will be capable of generating 1.3 MW of electricity, so the whole development has a potential output power of 55.9 MW. However, because the wind is not always strong enough (or sometimes too strong), the turbines do not operate anywhere near their maximum output and the effective actual output will only be around 17 MW. To put this into perspective, the Drax power station near Selby (a traditional “fossil fuel” coal-
The wind turbines are clearly an issue which will have a huge effect on the whole village and, indeed, the whole area. Whether you are for or against the proposed development, it is something we all need to be informed about and make sure we have our say.
Matthew Pickles
