World Wind Watch | Green Energy News

July 28, 2002 – Vol.7 No.18

WORLD WIND WATCH.

In little more than a year Britain’s newest offshore wind farm should be complete, online and sending green electricity to the shore.

The U.K. government has given the go-ahead to begin construction of North Hoyle, the up-to-90 megawatt wind farm for the north coast of Wales and in sight of the resorts of Prestatyn and Rhyl in Denbighshire. With permission granted, work should begin immediately on the site that will initially hold 30, 2-megawatt Vestas turbines in waters 5 miles or so from the coast. The order for turbines is valued at $85.7 million to Vestas.

Once the project is complete, customers will be able to buy green electricity generated at North Hoyle through NPower’s clever and cleverly named Juice renewable energy marketing program. Juice, a collaborative effort of NPower and Greenpeace, sells renewable energy WITHOUT a premium price attached. Customers too are told which renewable generating plants are supplying power to their homes or businesses. (Until North Hoyle is complete Juice power will come from other renewables. After completion power will come from North Hoyle.)

Developers planning offshore wind farms in the U.S. should take a look at North Hoyle. Though much larger, the Cape Wind project for Nantucket Sound, for instance, is also about the same distance from a shoreline that is mixture of resorts, ocean front homes and beaches.

North Hoyle seemed to go rapidly through the approval stage without much resistance from residents that will be able to see the project on the horizon. Generally the British seem better informed about the perils of global warming and climate change and the need for green energy. Why aren’t people in the U.S? The U.K. government, too, is fully supportive - all the way to 10 Downing Street - of offshore wind energy, North Hoyle and, in general, wants the country a be world leader in renewable energy. Not a peep from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in support of Cape Wind.

The developer of North Hoyle is National Wind Power at http://www.natwindpower.co.uk/ . Visit Cape Wind at http://www.capewind.org/ , Vestas at http://www.vestas.com/ .