Yearly Archives: 2014

Students from Exeter University visited Britain’s first commercial wind farm in Delabole as part of an exercise to teach them how important the renewable energy sector is to the South West’s economy.

It is understood that more than 10,000 people work in the renewables sector in the South West and this could rise to 34,000 jobs by 2020. Simon Wheeler, head of development at Good Energy, said the Big Field Wind Farm in North Cornwall could be worth more than £5m to Cornwall’s economy if it is given the go-ahead. This would amount to the equivalent of a further £14 million over the 25-year life of the project.

It is refreshing to see efforts being made to educate the next generation. Individuals who are encouraged to take an interest in wind energy projects will play an important role in securing the sustainable development of renewable energy in the UK. Teaching students about the importance of clean energy whilst they are still in education will help decrease the possibility of a skills gap; and will ensure a future supply of technicians, project managers and developers.

Two wind turbines are Shoreham Port’s latest plan as it works towards a more sustainable future. Shoreham Port is working in partnership with Fine Energy and Norvento Wind Energy UK on the project to install two 100kW wind turbines.

Annual electricity consumption at the Port is 1.7GWh and the largest consumption of energy is at the pumphouse, where water lost through the opening and closing of the locks is replenished. This is essential to maintain the water level in the canal and keeping the infrastructure secure, but this process alone uses 28 per cent of the annual consumption.

The plan is to place the two wind turbines on the outer layby, south of Basin Road. Each turbine would have a three-bladed rotor measuring 22m in diameter, placed on a 24.5m high tubular tower, making the height 35.5m to the tip of the blades.

Aviation radars are designed to show moving objects, such as aircrafts, and to filter out anything stationary. Whilst the turbine mast does not move, the spinning motion of the blades can sometimes appear as clutter on the radar screen and may interfere with air traffic control. Consequently, onshore wind turbines, big or small, can be refused planning permission due to objections from UK airports or the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Significant progress is now being made as NATS and aerospace business Terma have doubled up and developed the Scanter 4002 transceiver. This system is capable of mitigating the effects of wind turbines, ie recognising they are stationary objects, and can actually detect aircrafts through onshore wind farm locations such as tracking helicopters between turbines.

As a developer of wind sites, Fine Energy is very keen to see how this system progresses and we appreciate the efforts being made to ensure civil airports and wind turbines can coexist.

In partnership with Norvento Wind Energy UK and Shoreham Port, Fine Energy plans to develop two medium scale wind turbines on the south side of the basin, and the energy generated by the turbines will feed power directly into the Port’s Pump House. The Norvento nED100 model has been selected for this project because it is predicted that the two turbines will generate a total of 555,000 kWh per year which is sufficient to meet the energy requirements of the Pump House.

On Wednesday 22 October 2014 Fine Energy is holding a public meeting at Southwick Community Centre to share details of the project and to answer questions. We welcome you to come along and find out a little more about this project.

If this sounds of interest to your port or business and you are from a little further afield, please feel free to email consultations@fineenergy.co.uk and we will be happy to discuss this development with you.

Fine Energy’s very own Graham Hygate will be speaking at the RenewableUK’s annual conference and exhibition on Wednesday 12th November 2014, in a session entitled “Finance Opportunities for Small and Medium Wind”. To whet your appetite, Graham will be discussing new areas of focus in the UK’s small and medium wind market.

As the UK wind energy market matures, attention is turning to sites with marginal wind resource and our manufacturers are responding by developing turbines capable of extracting energy at lower wind speeds. This brings a sharper focus on wind resource estimation and creates demand for the capability to predict and meter onsite energy usage reliably.

Other members of the Fine Energy team will be attending the exhibition and will be happy to answer all company and project specific questions. If you already have your tickets to this event, let us know!