Wind farm ready for harvest

Jun 7 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post

IT IS just a month until the wind farm currently under construction off the coast of Wirral is switched on, generating enough power for a small town.

The Burbo site, four miles from the Wirral and Crosby coastlines, has been the focal point for some controversy, but the chief executive of the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) insisted it is the best way forward for the UK to develop a sustainable source of power.

The wind farm consists of 25 turbines which when fully installed over the next few weeks will stand 137 metres above sea level at the tip of the blades.

A boat trip out to Liverpool Bay near the wind farm was organised ahead of a conference being held in Liverpool today which brings together experts from across the world to examine key issues facing the offshore wind industry.

They were given the chance to take a closer look at the massive turbines which each consist of a 65-metre tower weighing 180 tonnes, positioned onto a single foundation pile driven into the seabed last summer.

The £107m Burbo Bank project will, when completed, generate 90MW – enough power for round 80,000 households.

A Wallasey substation will process electricity and when testing of the turbines is completed, probably by September, the power will be put into the National Grid.

Last night, Maria McCaffrey, chief executive of the BWEA, and originally from Liverpool, said: “We have two compelling issues to address. One the one hand, climate change creates an urgent need to reduce carbon emissions and greenhouse gases, which we are already seeing have an effect in various parts of the world.

“And also important is the security of supply. Until the first quarter of this year, supplies of oil and gas had been disrupted 17 times. We enjoy Europe’s richest resource of wind and tidal energy.”

Last year, hundreds of people living in Hoylake and West Kirby complained about the noise when the multi-million pound work started on two of the 25 turbines at Burbo Bank wind farm.

Others had complained that it spoiled views from Wirral into the setting sun.

But Mrs McCaffrey dismissed any suggestion that the wind farm should not be built saying such objections are “socially irresponsible and not a little bit selfish”.

She said: “There is not a compelling case for holding back what we see as the future.”

She said there is around 9,000 megaWatts in various stages of development around the UK, the majority on the east coast and Britain is now poised to overtake Denmark as the world’s leading generator of such renewable power.

Mrs McCaffrey added: “The world is already looking to us as leaders in this field.”

SEE the Daily Post website later today for a video report on the wind farm.

liammurphy