Planning permission is being sought to erect a wind turbine on land between Godshill and Whitwell at Roud in a bid to reduce a local farm’s energy costs.
An application to the Isle of Wight Council has been submitted by James Hewitt of Knightsbridge Farm Ltd, who wants to place an 18m high turbine on a parcel of land at Knightsbridge Farm.
It is proposed that the 11kW turbine – which will be seen from Whitwell Road – will be erected on an 18m tubular tower, with the blade tips taking the overall height to 24.8m.
It’s said that whilst the primary objective of the wind turbine is to provide energy security for the business by reducing the need to purchase power, a major motivation for the installation is to reduce, or eliminate, dependency on fossil fuels, reduce the carbon footprint of the property and contribute positively towards the Council’s Climate and Environment Strategy.
The generation of power from the turbine – estimated to be 25,000kWhrs per annum – will be in addition to power generated from a 50kW roof-mounted solar array for which planning has already been granted. At times when electricity is not required on the property surplus energy will be exported to the local grid, creating an income stream for the farm.
The applicant claims that the relatively small scale of the turbine, coupled with the natural profile of the landscape in the area, means that the structure will not comprise a damaging or intrusive horizon feature.
Rubbish, unless they are growing dope why on earth would then need all that power.
Ban it, otherwise more ugly structures in a beautiful area and more decapitated birds.
Pure greed, to make money, using the ‘green agenda’ to get planning.
Try reading the full article and you will see that any surplus power is to be fed back into the National Grid.
I am fairly sure that there were people like you that objected to windmills when they were first proposed. Oh – wait- my mistake- people had sensible views in those days and didn’t make objections which could have a negative effect on our climate.
It was much later that people messed it all up with fossil fuel burning.
They are wind turbines not windmills. Windmills are mills driven by wind.
Wind turbines should be constructed in the sea where the wind is more reliable as an energy source all year round. This wind turbine on a farm is for making money not saving the planet. Wind turbines should be sited based on a scientifically determined strategy not willy nilly based on a farmer’s love of money. The countryside will be covered in them in no time if we go down that route. The island depends on tourism and no one wants to come and see an island covered in wind turbines.
Wind is unreliable even out at sea which has been readily demonstrated over the last couple of years. They are certainly not making our enerrgy costs any cheaper.
There is nothing wrong with the climate do your research.
Sing to the tune of the Winkers Song by Ivor Biggun
“I’m a NIMBY”
“I’m a NIMBY”
“I like electricity when it’s not made near me”
“I’m a NIMBY”
“I’m a NIMBY”
“And I pull my pud in the dark”
Explain how trying to reduce your monthly energy costs is greed. Sounds like a good idea to me . Will look into it myself .
This is a big wind turbine and the aim is obviously to sell energy to the National Grid to make money rather than just powering a farm. How much energy do you think a farm uses? Not much and the farm’s needs will be more than covered by the “50kW roof-mounted solar array” that is being built.
So what! If you travel off this Island, and even to other countries, you will see wind turbines and solar panels being used to generate electricity and remove the need for fossil fuels which are destroying our planet. It’s opinions like this which are why we are so bind the rest of the world. We need to start building more wind turbines.
Why not!! There are no houses close by to disturb, the turbine will be no worse than a pylon which we drive by every day and take no notice of. Good luck to them.
Because it sets a precedent and before you know it the island will be covered with them. A total eyesore and it will ruin this “beautiful island” that depends on tourism. Back to your mud huts in no time.
Travel to the beautiful Canary Islands and look at the wind farms. They are quite beautiful as well as useful. Start thinking about this planet!
The Canary Islands where it is windy all year round because they are out in the Atlantic. This island is not windy enough.
Greed and a lack of respect for island’s dependency on tourism. Wind turbines function better offshore and aren’t a blight on the landscape when located in the sea.
You know Cornwall has a bigger tourist industry than the Isle of Wight and has, literally, thousands of the things most much bigger than this one, right?
Well, it is much bigger place.
Cornwall has an area of 3,563 square kilometres and, as of 2015, has 233 wind turbines giving an average of just under 1 wind turbine every 15 square kilometres.
The Isle of Wight has an area of 381 square kilometres. To achieve the same density of wind farms as Cornwall we should have 25 wind turbines. We currently have none.
Maths.
Wind farms at that density do not affect Cornwall’s tourism and would not affect ours.
Then I suggest that we put all 25 in your garden. Happy with that Smiffy? You’ll never sleep again.
What a load of nonsense. You are obviously an idiot Smiffy. Those wind farms in Cornwall are sited in locations that maximize electricity production without damaging the environment. They are in VERY windy locations. The wind blows for most of the year. Only a fool would install wind turbines based on land area. It has to be worthwhile. The island is not sufficiently windy for long enough.
Always makes me laugh when Dunning Kruger types call me an idiot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
Because the term defines you perfectly
I agree Phil. To be honest, I just make this stuff up to annoy people.
I’m beginning to think that people against wind turbines have not travelled off the island!
Godshill isn’t offshore.
That is not “Relatively small scale”
1x 11kW turbine is definitely small scale.
A typical new onshore turbine is in the order of 4MW, which is 360 time bigger with regard to its generating capacity.
The proposed turbine would be about 25 metres high. The biggest industrial scale ones are about 90 metres high. Thus, the difference in scale (height) is about 3-4 times. The illustration above is puzzling because it looks a lot bigger than a typical 11 kW turbine.
Yeah why not! That’s have em! Gets some power!
Why not, let’s hope it get’s approved. we need a lot more erected to bring down the cost of Electric.
No problems,we need alot more of these on land and offshore. No evidence they harm wildlife and if someone don’t want in their picture/video it’s easy now days to remove etc. Would love one in my back garden to compliment solar panels – useless in night and cloud,but have wind on these days.
They do kill animals and lots of them.
You can get a small domestic wind turbine but the height is limited by planning regulations. Exceed the size limit and you will soon be fed up with the noise produced. They make a racket.
It really surprises me that people are still, even after the energy crisis, so short sighted.
The standard supply into a domestic property is 100amps roughly 24KW. So the comment ‘why on earth would they need all this power’ is an uneducated one, this is an 11KW Turbine, less than is available in a domestic property… and this is a farm.
The artist impression shows that this is no more unsightly than a mobile phone mast…
This is not greed… this is sensible.
Rot. Whilst the potential is there to pull 24kilowatts from a domestic supply that in reality never happens.
So clearly this is all about making cash by erecting an eyesore which if allowed will become the norm. Ban it.
Amazing isn’t it…
The Government and IoW Council are promoting (pushing) a green energy agenda, and many people here argue for it…
Yet, this application is lodged and all of a sudden the NIMBY’s are out ‘not here’!
Whilst I don’t believe wind turbines are the great panacea that some claim, they really do not decapitate loads of birds!
No to windmills on the Isle of Wight.
Is that comment to just ‘trigger’ people, or so you actually have a rational reason to support this opinion?
So I have a friend that works for a company who fixes these turbines, they barely produce 30% of what they supposedly say they do, from the horses mouth, basically someone who has land doesn’t want to pay the bills we all have to so he can put a giant ugly eyesore on a beautiful bit of island land, maybe we should all apply then and power our own houses, oh wait we’re not allowed to do that are we! People can’t even get planning permission for an extension and yet this can be accepted. I sincerely hope it doesn’t and I also hope people really wake up to how ludicrous the green venture really is. Please stop reading mainstream news and do some proper research!
Ah, the old “I have a friend who . . . ”
For all we know he scrubs the toilets.
He does a very good job
Why not ?, hope this get’s approved real fast.
We need a lot more of these, to reduce our Electric bills.
It’s about time wind turbines started being used to supply power on the Island.There have been a lot of missed opportunities thanks to the NIMBYs and a short sighted council. Whatever happened to Green Island initiative??
No wind = no power which is unpredictable, also name plate values are not real world figures.
Oh no. Not in my back yard.
The traditional ways we generate electricity is faltering, the evidence is out there for all to see, and it’s a product we all use, all the time! Devices such as wind turbines will slowly take over as fossil fuel declines, we may as well embrace it now, later on we will not have the luxury of saying ‘not here’!
Energy “The answer my friend is blowing in the “
Can’t the farm use its waste to generate electricity rather than destroying the view with a horrible windmill.
Utilizing farm waste would generate greenhouse gases, so NO.
A 50kW roof-mounted solar array generates income of about £15000 per annum from an investment of £60000, which is about 25% per annum. The farm could run on a 5 kW solar array so the objective of this installation is profit. No harm in that but the application for the wind turbine is obviously to further increase profit rather than meet the farmer’s needs at the cost of creating an eyesore that damages the local tourism industry. Wind turbines should be sited in appropriate locations to maximize power production and minimize harm to the environment (and the environment of the island is why the tourists come).
For the last time, the island is not windy enough to make it worthwhile building wind farms. Wind farm sites are selected in order to maximize energy production. They are not selected by some muppets saying “I want wind farms like I’ve seen in other places”. The island is not good a place for wind power generation. I might as well say that “I want diamond mines like I’ve seen in South Africa”. Equally pointless.