DELABOLE WINDFARM

The First Commercial Windfarm in the United Kingdom

 

In 1980 the combination of Cornish opposition to a proposed Nuclear Power Staion and a windswept farm, prompted the Edwards family to take a positive view and look into the potential of harnessing the wind to produce power.
The windfarm is sited 1.6 km (1 mile) from the village of Delabole. 4 km ( 2.5 miles) from the sea, at an altitude of 240m (800 ft ).

The windfarm first became operational in mid December 1991. Construction took just 3months total, but erection and commissioning of the turbines took only 15 days!
The turbines are carefully positioned in existing hedgelines about 270 m apart. There are no access roads and all cables are underground so that normal agricultural use is undisturbed.

The 10 turbines have an annual output of about 12 million Kw hours, which equals 1 years consumption by 2700 average homes (a small town).
To produce the same amount of electricity by convential means, about 2000 tonnes of oil or 5000 tonnes of coal would have to be burnt each year, producing 12000 tonnes of carbon dioxide and 120 tonnes of sulpher and nitrous oxides.

Photograph by David Flower	Photograph by Mark Nelson

Photographs by Martin Keat

Good Energy Generation
'Repowering' Planned for the UK's first Wind Farm

Last summer we held the first phase of our public consultation on the re-powering of Delabole Wind Farm. Here we shared our plans to take down the existing wind turbines at Delabole and install a reduced number of larger, more powerful turbines. We asked people who attended the consultation to give us their views of the re-powering project.  We achieved this by displaying an opinions board which gave people the opportunity to state how they would like Delabole Wind Farm to look in the future.

We have taken these views onboard and with the technical research and the environmental impact assessment that has been carried out, we have now finalised the material that will be included in our planning application. We will present this application to the North Cornwall District Council planning department.

 

 

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Delabole Windfarm th Next Generation
progress report

Over half of the old turbines have now come down and are waiting to go to their new home. Jessica and John from our Generation Team were on site for the first two weeks of August to oversee the beginning stages of the decommissioning of the ten veteran turbines. The blustery Cornish weather has caused a few minor delays, with strong

28th August 2010 The last of the original Wind Turbines gets removed photo by Chris Hore

winds meaning it has been too dangerous to bring some of the turbines down. However, the Cornish wind is the reason we

picked Delabole for a wind farm, and the teams on site are working hard to get the remainder down - in a couple of weeks the site will be ready to welcome the new turbines.

The project has attracted a lot of interest and there has been a steady stream of press, locals and tourists coming to have a look around the site. The new turbines are on target to start going up in mid-September, and the team will be back then to welcome visitors and answer their questions.

Building the new Wind Turbines

 

 

The UK’s first commercial wind farm has been redeveloped, replacing the 10 old
turbines with four new, more powerful ones.

 

The Second Generation Windturbines from Delabole

 

Chris Hune MP answers Questions Peter Edwards looks on	Childrens Presentations

 

 

The Delabole Wind Farm: The Next Generation was opened on 22nd February 2011 by the Energy and Climate Change Secretary Liberal Chris Hune MP, he said "Delabole was the first commercial wind farm in the UK and, in its new form, it remains at the forefront of best practice," "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." Secretary Hune also presented prizes to 4 children from Delabole School. During the evening the turbines were lit up.

 

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