Our News
Wind turbine application: Where are we now?
After a big effort, and despite a lot of local support, our application was finally refused by South Glos Council.
It was a big disappointment to us as we really wanted to become carbon positive in our energy requirements. But the fact that the farm is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty really finished it off on this occasion. In actual fact there are actually quite a few turbines going up in AONBs around the country. But if these areas really are to be excluded in the long run this will dramatically reduce the potential area that turbines could be placed.
Given the worries around nuclear power after the problems in Japan (march 2011), and the on-going political instability in the oil producing areas of the middle east, developing our own energy supplies seems to us to make a lot of strategic sense. The turbine we propose would power more than 155 homes – about one side of Marshfield High Street! It would be totally inaudible and the capital cost would be funded by Marshfield Farm. Local people would, however, have to look at it in the distance as they drive to work, and this seems to be the problem at present.
Ever the optimists, we haven’t given up yet! We have won Planning Permission for an array of Photovoltaic (PV) panels to be placed on the roof of a new farm building which will be installed during the year. This will make a contribution to our carbon footprint. Because we have lots of coldstores here we can easily use all the power they produce all the time.
But we also plan to return to the planning department with a new wind turbine proposal later in 2011. We genuinely believe that this is the right to do – this is a remote, windy farm using lots of expensive electricity. It’s a bit of a no-brainer!!