Projects

Location

Harthill, South Yorkshire

Summary of site

Cornwall Light & Power (CLP) acquired this project from nPower renewables in October 2005. CLP has received planning permission from Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council (RMBC) to construct three wind turbines at Loscar Farm, Harthill, near Sheffield.

The scheme will provide a total installed capacity of 3.9MW and generate around 9,224MWh of electricity each year. The turbines will have up to a 95 metre tip height and a hub height of 60 metres.

Over 2,000 local homes will benefit, and up to 7,900 tonnes of CO2 each year could be offset from conventional fossil fuel burning power stations. It would be the first commercial wind energy project in RMBC.

Latest information

What’s happening on site?

Cornwall Light & Power has completed a number of pieces of work prior to construction starting on site, including:

• A topographical survey of the area
• A baseline TV reception survey across the area (covering a range of 5km)
• Archaeological investigations
• Detailed landscape surveys of all trees, hedges and other landscape features which may be affected by the works have been undertaken.
• Boreholes have been dug to ascertain the nature of the underlying ground and rock structure.

Work in 2009

Further geotechnical investigations and studies have been completed and the information gained will be used to design the foundations of the turbines. An on-site archaeologist is in attendance during any excavations.

An ecology report has been undertaken. This includes research into the winter habits of Golden Plover populations on and around the farm, and has been presented to the council, which has said that it is happy for work to proceed

A full archaeological exploration to investigate signs of any previous use of the land has recently been carried out. Preliminary reports suggest that nothing of any archaeological signifi cance has been found.

Construction
Construction has begun with an extensive programme of hedgerow planting and improvements, with benefits for local wildlife and plants. This includes 250m of new hedgerow and a 400m stretch which has been “gapped-up”.

The next steps of the construction process will involve the following (although dates have yet to be confirmed):

• Creation of new vehicular access points off Packman Lane
• Temporary construction compound
• Widening of field access points
• Construction of on-site access tracks
• Construction of turbine foundations
• Electrical infrastructure installation (underground cabling and construction of a substation/control building)
  

Details on these works will be posted here.

Please note that all timings given are indicative and may be subject to change. Full-scale construction activities will only commence on site once preliminary studies have been carried out.

 

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