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FEATURE SPONSOR


PLANNING ISSUES


The public are supportive too as demonstrated in recent Comres and Opinium polls, which confirm that two-thirds of people (67% and 68% respectively) support more wind farm development in their area.


Renewable wind energy, captured by public-sector wind farms, is helping forward-thinking local authorities to generate new multi-million-pound revenue streams, fund municipal services, put land assets to work, underwrite energy security and offset soaring energy prices.


There are also national and global gains; municipally-owned wind farms can potentially contribute significantly towards ambitious UK climate change goals, helping councils to meet their binding renewable power and carbon reduction obligations.


Rochdale Borough Council is taking an innovative approach that promises a high rate of success. It is working with the private sector in a new form of public- private sector partnership designed to complement the Borough’s existing privately-held wind infrastructure.


The Council believes that the joint initiative will help to achieve its twin goals of becoming both energy self-sufficient and the UK’s greenest borough.


PROGRESSIVE PARTNERSHIP IDENTIFIES NEW OPPORTUNITIES Leader of the Council, Councillor Colin Lambert, has a vision for Rochdale that it becomes the greenest borough in the country. He sees the strategy as setting ground-breaking precedents and said: “We face some serious challenges including global warming, climate change, energy and resource depletion. These require us to develop some imaginative solutions. In tough economic times, local authorities have a responsibility to ensure that private and public sector joint enterprises, such as this, offer value for money.


“There are a number of opportunities for wind energy projects that we can own and operate on behalf of our community. Our objective is for individual citizens to become personal shareholders in renewable energy.”


If approved, the proposal will have four stages. The first of which is to develop a small pilot wind turbine. Following phases will include developing a combination of medium-sized and small turbines.


Encouraging financial figures certainly help. Each medium-sized 0.5 MW turbine can produce returns of up to £9 million over a 25 year life time. Even a small 10MW – 4 turbine wind farm will generate income equivalent to a 3.5% council tax cut for 25 years. These are strong incentives.


However, the question for many authorities is how to bring all these many benefits to fruition.


www.windenergynetwork.co.uk


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