News
Background and more detail on Goonhilly Plans
Each of the 14 turbines which have operated successfully at Goonhilly since 1993 has a capacity of 400 kilowatts. This gives the current wind farm a total capacity of 5.6 Megawatts.
These could be replaced by seven new turbines - taller and turning more slowly. Each would have a capacity of up to 3 Megawatts, giving a combined capacity of approximately 21 Megawatts.
If that happens, Goonhilly's annual output of emissions-free electricity can leap ahead from about 11,000 Megawatt hours (MWh) to over a new level of over 60,000 MWh.
Nowhere in Britain is the use of renewable energy more desirable than on the Lizard.
Gas is not piped into the area and therefore the use of electricity in homes and businesses is unavoidably higher on average than elsewhere.
The latest DTI electricity consumption figures show that in a typical year households in the UK use an average of 4.6MWh of electricity. However households in the south west use an average of 4.9MWh and households in Kerrier use an average of 5.5MWh per annum.
In other words, because of circumstances, consumption of non-renewable electricity with its damaging carbon emissions is 25 per cent higher on the green peninsula than the national average.
The Goonhilly project could represent an investment of approximately £20 million by Cornwall Light & Power. This would include over £1 million to reinforce the local electricity infrastructure, upgrading the electricity wires which supply local people and which also distribute the output from the wind turbines.
There is no definitive timetable at this stage, but if the project went into planning by the end of this year it could be constructed and operational during 2009.
Wind power is entirely natural and renewable - a non-polluting resource blowing across the site at a higher annual average speed than in most of the country.
Allowing approximately six months to repay the carbon debt involved in installing the new turbines, the wind farm will produce carbon-free electricity for rest of its 20-year working life.
The green electricity currently produced at Goonhilly is estimated to save almost 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum compared with conventional fossil fuel power stations. The green electricity from a repowered Goonhilly could save over 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum emitted when generating from fossil fuels.
Use of renewable energy is recognised worldwide as vitally important in reducing further damage to the planet caused by harmful carbon emissions.
Renewable energy in Cornwall and UK
There is currently just over 52 MW of renewable electricity generation installed in Cornwall, and three quarters of this is onshore wind power.
However there is much to be done if Cornwall is to achieve its target of having between 93MW and 108MW of renewable energy capacity by 2010.
Cornwall Light & Power this month starts work on constructing a two-turbine wind cluster at Roskrow Barton, near Penryn. This 1.7MW project will be the eighth in Cornwall.
The UK has 150 onshore wind projects utilising nearly 2,000 turbines with a combined capacity of over 2,000MW.
The highest number of turbines at one wind farm is 103 in Powys with a capacity of just over 30MW.
The highest capacity is at a wind farm in South Ayrshire where 52 modern 2.5MW turbines have a joint capacity of approximately 120MW.
Teaching aid
As well as supplying electricity, Goonhilly wind farm is also used as a teaching aid by the University of Exeter in Penryn, Mullion School and Helston School.
The School of Geography, Archaelogy and Earth Resources offers a Penryn-based BSc Honours Degree in Renewable Energy. This provides graduates for the renewable energy industry worldwide, and indeed two have been working on the Goonhilly 'repowering' project for Cornwall Light & Power.
Goonhilly is a local asset supplying electricity locally, and also being used for education. It is an asset which can now be upgraded for service for the next 20 years.
Public consultation
A full Environmental Impact Statement will be prepared to support any planning application.
Displays describing the project will also be on view at a number of public sites in the area, the locations of which are currently being discussed, and progress can be followed on this website.
Visitors to the website are welcome to email their views and comments.
The result of our discussions with local residents, local councillors and planning officers will be assessed in great detail and with great care to ensure that everyone has a chance to make their views known.
Printed questionnaires will also be available from Cornwall Light & Power at Monument House, 58 Coinagehall Street, Helston.
Contact details are as follows:
CLP Wind Projects, Monument House, 58 Coinagehall Street, Helston TR13 8EL
Tel: 01326 572720