Project Evolution

At the initial stages of consideration, designers drafted a project outline that would maximise the wind energy potential of the site. Staying in line with the guidelines, the following initial assumptions were made: The initial distances to houses was taken at 500m (subsequently increased), shadow flicker curtailment was taken at the maximum allowable levels, the turbine height was taken at 169m.

Once this concept layout had been established, the design team took into consideration increased distances from homes in the area. It was found that increasing the setback distance from 500m to 680m reduced the number of turbines that could be considered by 50%, reducing the number to 19.

Placing local appropriateness as a fundamental consideration, further optimisation of this design was carried out in terms of factors including commonly received community feedback during which, distance to houses, number of turbines, shadow flicker and noise were considered. It was found that it was possible to increase the distances to houses, reduce turbine numbers further and improve general performance levels of the proposed wind farm by increasing the tip height by 11m. Essentially, the redesign resulted in 6 more turbines being dropped from consideration and the distance to houses increased to 720m and over. The design changes are set out in the following table: