Wind farm goes live (From Oxford Mail)

Wind farm goes live

3:47pm Thursday 5th June 2008 in

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Oxfordshire's first wind farm, between Faringdon and Shrivenham, has officially opened.

Five 1.3MW wind turbines at the Westmill Wind Farm will create enough electricity to power about 2,500 homes for the next 25 years.

However, because setting up an independent generating company is fraught with legal complexities, it is not possible to supply electricity to the surrounding area.

Instead, the company says the electricity it generates will be sold to two green energy companies.

The chairman of the co-operative which owns the wind farm is Mark Luntley, formerly Oxford City Council's director of corporate services.

And it turns out he knows a thing or two about wind - having previously lived in the Outer Hebrides while working for the Western Isles Council.

A few years ago he was preoccupied with the wind, because it would repeatedly blow down walls around his home on the remote Scottish islands.

Mr Luntley said: "The turbines do not generate electricity when the wind is not blowing and the wind does not blow all the time. But, then, coal-fired stations are only 40 per cent efficient. More than half goes up the chimney.

"The average wind speed predicted on site is 6.3 metres per second, which suggests an output for 2,500 homes."