The Red Booklet - Tenth Edition
Introduction
This is the tenth edition of this guide, which is unique in listing all windfarm projects in the UK , whether operational, projected or rejected/withdrawn. It is produced by Country Guardian as a wake-up call to those who care about the unique nature of our countryside heritage, which is under greater threat than ever before from wind turbines. It puts together in a single booklet 3 lists of windfarms that either:
- are currently at some stage of development
- were proposed and subsequently rejected/ withdrawn
- have been cleared for construction or actually constructed
Our booklet gives an overview of what exists, what might have been and what might still be if the government’s misguided ambitions are fulfilled. It also includes for the first time our current List of UK Windfarm Action Groups, which has now reached a total of 73.
With effect from this year’s guide, UK Projects with unused NFFO and SRO contracts are included in List B. Also, six small turbines which are essentially servicing a specific site and are not embedded in the National Grid have been removed from List B.
Site Reference Numbers. These have been discontinued, with the exception of the Zone code, and will be replaced in the next edition with new codes linking to the Windfarm Maps currently being developed.
The contents of each list are as follows:
- List A. Current projects .
Site Name
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The name generally given the geographical feature on which the windfarm is intended to be built, very often the name of a mountain, moor or farm. |
Z(one) |
A number indicating the zone where the site is. The zones are the 2-digit codes shown on the map inside the front cover, and result in the listings being in a North>South,then East>West order. |
Location |
A brief indication of the location, distance from a town or village. An Ordnance Survey Map Reference is given where available. |
Planning / Developer |
The local planning authority and the developer if known. |
NFFO/SRO |
For Non-Fossi-Fuel-Obligation/Scottish Renewables Obligation sites. N5 is NFFO-5; S3 is SRO-3. |
Status |
Current status of project. The main phases are Proposal, Planning applied for/ approved/rejected. Appealed. Public Inquiry ordered / approved / rejected. Anemometer applications are included if known. |
Turbines /
Site |
This information is the minimum required to identify the size of the project.
The top line is N x C @ H where N is number of turbines, C is the nominal output of each turbine and H is the height of the turbines.
The second line is IC / OC, where IC is the Installed Capacity and OC is Operational Capacity of the whole site. IC is also known as ‘Project Capacity’, and OC as ‘Load Factor’ by windfarm developers. Operating capacity is conventionally set at 30% of the Installed Capacity, and this is recognised by the British Wind Energy Association. This disparity reflects the intermittency of the wind, a fatal flaw in the technology. |
Comment |
Any additional information which is not covered by the Status or other fields. |
The list is in the order: Site Name within Zone Code.
List B. Projects which have failed to get planning permission, or have been withdrawn. . List B contains Reference Code, Site Name, Location and Comment. Where available Planning Authority and Developer are included The Comment will usually give information about number of turbines, how far the project got in the planning process and dates. It is in the same order as List A.
In the case of NFFO/SRO sites the information held is in List A format for the time being
List C. Operational Windfarms, including those cleared for planning.
This has basically the same format as List B, in the sequence of Site Name within Zone. The Comment field includes brief details of the size and number of turbines and the date the windfarm was commissioned.
www.countryguardian.net
The Red Booklet is also available at www.countryguardian.net/new map. We aim to update the website version of the Red Booklet at least twice between the annual editions of the hard-copy version.
Number of windfarms by Category and Region. Last year figures are in brackets. Note that last year’s List D (NFFO/SRO) has been merged into List C. Some of the increase has been due to to a decision to include more sites at the “proposal” or “anemometer” stage than previously.
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Scotland |
England |
Wales/IoM/
N Ireland |
|
List A - current |
117(79) |
54(42) |
25(12) |
196(133) |
List B - failed |
32(21) |
142(74) |
68(48) |
242(143) |
List C - approved |
38(35) |
72(73) |
38(35) |
148(143) |
Total |
187(146) |
268(237) |
131(115) |
586(498) |
Michael Hird, Editor
01494 680275
michaelhird@tiscali.co.uk
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