On Tuesday, we were delighted to welcome the Rt Hon Chris Huhne, MP, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, to open our newly redeveloped wind farm in Delabole, Cornwall. Local residents and school children joined the Good Energy team, our customers and generators for the celebrations.
Secretary of State, Chris Huhne says: “Delabole was the first commercial wind farm in the UK and, in its new form, it remains at the forefront of best practice. On top of generating enough green electricity for 7,000 homes, a community fund will be making a direct contribution to projects in the local area.
“All too often, local communities can see the windfarms but not the windfall. Wind is an abundant, clean, home-grown alternative to fossil fuels. It can’t be blown off course by instability abroad, and so it’s vital that we use it for our low carbon, energy security.
“The coalition is squarely behind the renewables sector. We’ll all benefit in the long run from more projects like Delabole, and moves to help local people feel more immediate benefits of hosting a windfarm are crucial.”
Since 2002 Delabole has been owned and operated by Good Energy, and we’ve invested £11.8 million to redevelop it. We’re very excited to be taking Delabole into its second generation of onshore wind power, and the increased capacity of the new turbines demonstrates how successful innovation in this field has been over the last two decades. The original 10 wind turbines have been replaced with four more powerful ones with a total combined capacity of 9.2MW, enough to supply around 7,000 homes with electricity – more than double the previous output.
Our CEO, Juliet Davenport, said: “We’re enormously proud of our investment in Delabole and are delighted to welcome Chris Huhne to officially open the new site. Delabole wind farm now accounts for around 20% of the total 100% renewable electricity supplied by Good Energy, and is the first in a pipeline of new wind energy projects we’re working on.
“We’d also like to thank the Delabole community for their help and support throughout the repowering process. It’s wonderful to be able to celebrate its completion together.”
The UK is the windiest country in Europe, but wind power currently supplies only 2.2% of our electricity needs. Onshore wind clearly has a role to play in a 100% renewable future for the UK – but success depends on local communities having their say too. Our experience with Delabole demonstrates how effective consultation with the local community throughout the repowering process can help the planning process run smoothly. And we’ll be making sure that communities get the opportunity to benefit financially from this and our future wind farm developments.
