Plan unveiled for England’s first onshore wind project in a decade
Almost decade long onshore wind ban in England has left it with fraction of capacity of northern neighbour Scotland despite having far larger population
A plan to build an onshore wind farm that would be the “largest in England” and the first new one in the country for over a decade has been launched by developer Cubico Sustainable Investments.
The 100MW Scout Moor II project would be built near an existing wind farm just north of Manchester, says Cubico, a UK-based renewables developer owned by two Canadian pension funds.
If granted planning permission, Scout Moor II would feature up to 21 wind turbines with a maximum blade tip height of 180 metres. That would be fewer turbines than the existing Scout Moor wind farm, but the newer machines would boast much higher capacity than the 26 existing Nordex 2.5MW machines.
The site could be operational before 2030, generating enough clean electricity to power over 100,000 homes and meet around 10% of Greater Manchester’s domestic energy needs, said Cubico.
“Our proposal for Scout Moor II reflects our strong confidence in the UK renewables sector and Britain’s potential to become a global clean energy powerhouse,” said Cubico CEO David Swindin.
“We’re encouraged by the Government’s vision to accelerate the build out of renewable energy infrastructure across the country, and we are committed to delivering projects that decarbonise our power system, enhance energy security and benefit local communities.”
A de facto onshore wind ban in England enacted by the previous Conservative government shut down the sector in the country for nearly a decade, with even war-torn Ukraine managing to erect more turbines in recent years.
The axing of that ban was one of the first actions taken by energy secretary Ed Miliband after his Labour Party swept to a landslide victory in the general election earlier this year. The Scout Moor II project marks the first major onshore wind project announced since then.
Labour wants to turn the UK into a clean energy superpower and kick fossil fuels off the power grid by 2030. To do this, it plans to double onshore wind capacity in the UK from its current level of around 15GW, while also trebling solar and quadrupling offshore wind.
The ban has meant England (population approaching 60 million) has stalled on around 3GW of onshore wind capacity for a decade, while Scotland (population 5.6 million), where the ban was not effective, has steamed ahead to hit 10GW of capacity.
Cubico says the new wind farm will bring an estimated £200m ($260m) of investment and hundreds of skilled green jobs across the lifetime of the project. Cubico currently operates over 250 MW of wind and solar projects in the UK.
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