Wingate Grange
Infinis held a second round of public exhibitions on 29 and 30 March 2012 at Trimdon Station, Wingate and Wheatley Hill showing the final design of the proposed Wingate Grange wind farm.
The site is to the west of Wingate, approximately 4.5 kilometres (km) south-east of Peterlee in County Durham and comprises open farmland with isolated parcels of wooded land.
A wind monitoring mast has been installed on site for several months and has allowed us to assess and understand the wind regime on the site in order to design a final layout for the proposed wind farm.
We have also had responses back from Durham County Council and key consultees on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) scoping report and have carried out a full EIA in the light of that feedback.
The final design for the wind farm comprises 5 turbines of up to 114.5m height to tip and the planning application will be made on this basis. The final turbine choice is not yet confirmed but it is expected that the generating capacity will be between 10MW and 12.5MW and it is estimated that the wind farm would generate the equivalent of the average annual electricity use of around 5,000 to 6,500 households, based on an average capacity factor of 26.9%*.
The first public exhibitions for the proposed wind farm were held on 20, 22 and 23 September 2011 at the same venues and newsletters were sent out in advance of both exhibitions to invite residents to attend. The newsletter and the panels that were displayed at both sets of exhibitions can be downloaded below.
Public consultation will continue throughout the development and planning application process.
The scoping report, which includes the site location and the initial wind farm layout, can also be accessed below. Additional information and documentation will also be uploaded as it becomes available.
If you are interested in getting involved with the project, whether as a supporter or a potential contractor in the development of Wingate Grange wind farm, you can contact us at wingategrangewindfarm@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 5,000 (for 10MW) to 6,500 (for 12.5MW) 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.
