Southampton's giant turbines plan blown out (From Daily Echo)

Southampton's giant turbines plan blown out

12:20pm Wednesday 5th November 2008

By Peter Law »

AMBITIOUS plans to build giant wind turbines in Southampton have stalled because city councillors fear a public outcry, the Daily Echo can reveal.

At least five potential wind turbine locations around the city have been identified since the council enthusiastically announced its plans late last year.

The secret sites – none of which are in residential areas – lie on the outskirts of the city and were chosen by the Government-backed Partnership for Renewables (PfR), a branch of the Carbon Trust.

But the council’s Tory Cabinet has now gone back to the drawing board to look at other less eye-catching – and controversial – renewable energy schemes.

Environmental campaigners yesterday said it was a major blow to Southampton’s eco-credentials and bid to become one of Britain’s greenest cities.

The Cabinet was later this month due to agree to the “general principal” of building the enormous 125-metre turbines – more than twice the height of the Civic Centre clock tower – at windy spots in the city.

Under the plan, the £2m structures – which would have each powered more than 1,000 homes – were to be integral to the city’s vision to embrace low carbon technology.

Despite almost a year’s research by PfR engineers, who screened all of the council’s land assets and carried out preliminary surveys of the most promising spots, the Cabinet has now backed out of the decision.

Sources inside the Civic Centre described the back down as “political” because wind turbines remain unpopular with some sections of the public.

Friends of the Earth Southampton spokesman Chris Bluemel said: “It’s very disappointing, but not really surprising because this administration has a history of making green announcements that they later turn their back on.

“It was not long ago they announced their eco-loan scheme to help people improve the energy efficiency of their homes and that has never happened.

“One would have presumed that they would have already looked at all their options. It seems they are trying to avoid possible public opposition, but our viewis that the visual argument is greatly exaggerated – I mean coal-fired power stations are not exactly pretty.”

Council chiefs now want to investigate other renewable energy sources with neighbouring local authorities in South Hampshire.

As revealed by the Daily Echo last week, the council is in secret talks with at least two energy firms about building a wood-fired power plant in Southampton’s docks.

The ten megawatt biomass plant would burn millions of tonnes of wood chip and rise up on vacant port land off Western Avenue, in the Western Docks.

The electricitywill be sold by the energy firm to a major business or plugged into the NationalGrid,while any generated heatwill be added to the city’s district heating scheme.

However, under the turbine scheme, power would have been sold back to the council at a reduced rate or fed into the National Grid to help council coffers.

It’s understood a single turbine, that could have been erected by 2011, would have raised about £50,000 per year for the council to offset energy bills for local residents.

A spokesman for PfR, which has already developed similar turbine plans in Reading and Oxford, said: “The work we’ve carried out so far with Southampton City Council has shown that there are potential wind turbine locations around the city which are worthy of further investigation.”

The British Wind Energy Association’s communications director Charles Anglin said the turbine scheme was an important opportunity for the council to contribute to the fight against climate change.

“Councils are major landowners and they have an opportunity not to just talk about tackling climate change, but tomake a real difference,” he said.

Councillor Matt Dean, Cabinet membner for environment and transport, said the council remained committed to exploring and using alternative forms of energy in the city, but refused to say when a final decision on the future of the turbine scheme would be made.

“Wind power is one of the options under investigation, but other sustainable power opportunities, like biomass for example, may be more suitable for the urban environment," he said.

“The council is keen to look at these in the context of wider sustainable energy opportunities being looked at by the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire (PUSH) – a partnership of local authorities in South Hampshire dedicated to sustainable, economic-led growth and improving prosperity and the quality of life for everyone who lives, works and spends their leisure time in South Hampshire.

“We will continue to investigate opportunities for embracing wind power and other possible energy options, but at this time it is too early to say when these will be taken forward.”

See today's Daily Echo for the full story