Cliffs farm wind turbine installation project – network connection and planning advice case study
Background
F Culshaw. a diversified farm business at Cliffs Farm in Lancashire, sought advice from Envirolink Northwest about solving delays to its 2.25 MW wind turbine development on land at Cliffs Farm. Envirolink Northwest supported the client through contract negotiations with all parties concerned, and provided post planning consent advice. The advice given helped to achieve £50,000 savings for the client and the project is now progressing towards a completion date of autumn ' 2011.
The project
F Culshaw is a business that has diversified from the farming industry into a number of business activities including an outdoor activity centre. Based at Cliffs Farm in Lancashire, the business saw an opportunity to generate further income from the land through the development of renewable energy. The project, which had been granted planning consent, involved the installation of three 750 kW wind turbines on land at Cliffs Farm, with an investment value of £3 million. The grid connection was costing the client approximately 10 % of the total project cost and was not progressing due to the connection point )eing 1.2 km from the site and accessible only via third party land. Negotiations with the third party land owner and land access payment were causing a delay to the project, so F Culshaw approached Envirolink Northwest for advice.
How Envirolink Northwest helped
An electricity network specialist from Envirolink Northwest assessed the connection issues and investigated alternative solutions. He facilitated meetings between the client and Electricity North West, advised on the third party land issues, reviewed all quotations and documents, and supported engineering decision making that led to significant cost savings. A planning specialist also advised on options to extend the planning permission, vary the planning conditions attached to the permission and gain separate planning consent for a new temporary access track to transport the turbines to site.
The benefits
Following the advice provided by Envirolink Northwest, the client:
- Achieved £50,000 cost savings on the project
- Reached a contract agreement between all parties concerned
- Is now progressing with the construction of the turbines which should be operational by autumn 2011.
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