Sisters
In early October 2011 Infinis submitted a planning application for the Sisters Wind Farm. This scheme, which would consist of four wind turbines up to 126m to blade tip, is proposed for an agricultural site west of Widdrington and approximately 8km north of Ashington, Northumberland.
The Sisters site was selected as it has a number of attributes that allow for the development of a wind farm with minimal environmental effects, including good wind conditions and few ecological issues. Depending on the final turbine choice, the generating capacity of the wind farm could be between 8MW and 10MW. It is estimated that this could generate the equivalent of the annual average electricity use of around 4,000 to 5,000 UK households, based on an average capacity factor of 26.9%*.
The design for the Sisters Wind Farm has evolved since our initial discussions with the local community and, by taking into account the results of our environmental surveys and feedback from the consultation process, the revised design has been scaled down from the original proposal for five turbines with a tip height of up to 140m.
Public exhibitions were held on 27 and 28 January 2011 in Widdrington Station and Widdrington to show how the project had evolved and provide details of the revised scheme. Many thanks to all those who came along.
An overview of the Sisters scheme is available via the link below. A full copy of the planning application is available for public viewing at the Widdrington Station Library and the Northumberland County Council offices in Morpeth. The planning application reference number is 11/02481/RENEIA.
If you would like to support the scheme, have any comments or require further information please email sisterswindfarm@infinis.com. Alternatively our general contact details can be found above.
* This calculation is based on the UK average onshore wind capacity factor of 26.9% (taken from Table 7.4 in the Digest of UK Energy Statistics 2010, DUKES, 2010, for data in 2009) and an average GB household electricity consumption in 2009 of 4,423kWh (taken from the Sub-National Electricity Consumption Data 2009 published by DECC) which leads to a calculation of the equivalent electricity consumption of 4,000 (for 8MW) to 5,000 (for 10MW) households (rounded down to the nearest 500 households). It should be noted that the equivalent household electricity consumption calculated will vary depending on site wind speeds and actual household electricity consumption.
