Resident Questions

What is the catchment area of the 280 houses included in the partnership?

The area under consideration are all properties within the Parish Boundary of Bretherton. However, the deployment of the proposal will be in a step by step way and will seek to ensure the maximum number of properties are connected as soon as possible. This may cause a number of outlying properties to be delayed, or it may prove to be uneconomic to connect every property within the parish.

How tall will the turbine be?

The proposed wind turbine with a maximum rated output of 4.2 megawatts will have a rotor diameter of 138m. The tower will be 130m high. The tip of the blades will reach height of 200m. For comparison, the wind turbines on Mawdesley Moss are 55m high..

What about ‘shadow flicker’?

Shadow flicker can occur inside a building when the sun shining through a wind turbine’s rotating blades creates a rotating shadow on the ground, which causes a flickering effect if the shadow passes across a window into a building. The adverse effects of shadow flicker from large commercial-scale wind turbines is one of nuisance, but there are no associated adverse health effects

Certain weather conditions are required in order for shadow flicker to occur:

• The turbine must be close enough to a building for its shadow to be cast over the building
• The sun must be low in the sky, with no clouds
• The sun, turbine and window must be lined up so that the rotating blades cast a shadow on the window

The potential for shadow flicker must be considered as part of the pre-planning environmental impact assessment. Shadow flicker is predictable, and a turbine can be programmed to shut down if this is required.
A full report has been commissioned to identify the potential flicker, and glare. 

Will the wind turbine affect the already bad TV and mobile phone signal in the area?

No, necessarily design and planning work is carried out between the turbine design team and the cellular/radar system providers to ensure the turbine location does not affect the area’s TV and mobile phone signal.

• The sun must be low in the sky, with no clouds
• The sun, turbine and window must be lined up so that the rotating blades cast a shadow on the window

The potential for shadow flicker must be considered as part of the pre-planning environmental impact assessment. Shadow flicker is predictable, and a turbine can be programmed to shut down if this is required.
A full report has been commissioned to identify the potential flicker, and glare. 

Do I require a smart meter to be a participant?

Yes, a smart meter is required and can be obtained through the partner energy supplier to the Bretherton Energy Local Club (e.g. GEUK or Octopus).

What if I don’t live in Bretherton?

Unfortunately, you cannot be a member of the Bretherton Energy Local Club, as the proposal is to only supply residents of Bretherton with electrical energy from the Asland Walks Energy Park.

Do I require a smart meter to be a participant?

Yes, a smart meter is required and can be obtained through the energy supplier Octopus.

You can create an account and request a smart meter at octopus.energy/login/?next=/dashboard/smets2-interest

How noisy will the wind turbines be and will these be heard from the village?

You can stand under a wind turbine and hold a normal conversation without raising your voice. The sound you hear is the swoosh of the blades passing through the air. Compared to other sources of noise (such roads or the wind in the trees), wind turbines are not noisy.
Noise from turbines is taken very seriously throughout the planning process and a noise study will be an integral part of the environmental impact assessment required for planning permission. Planning consent will only be granted if it can be demonstrated that the wind turbine will not be a noise nuisance to nearby houses even when the background noise level is at a minimum, for example at night. Independent noise surveys will be required, and the methodology agreed with the Environmental Protection Team at the Chorley Council.

Are birds at risk of collision with the wind turbine?

When choosing a site for a wind turbine, careful consideration needs to be given to impact on wildlife from both the construction works and the operation of the turbine. Both can be managed through good site selection and design (e.g. locating turbines away from sensitive habitats and flight paths for birds and bats).

The impacts from construction works are similar to any development (earth works from construction of roads and foundations etc). The key species that may be impacted by the operation of the turbine are birds and bats. In most cases both will avoid flying into wind turbines. 

Habitat loss, traffic and domestic cats are a much greater man-made threat. With the exception of a few isolated cases due to poor siting, wind farms have not been associated with any major adverse effects on bird populations. By far the biggest threat to birds and other wildlife is climate change, which can be mitigated by the replacement of fossil fuel generation with renewable energy generation such as wind power. Environmental assessments and consultation with wildlife bodies are a statutory requirement as part of the planning process, which ensures wind turbines are properly sited to minimise effects on wildlife.

Will every house in Bretherton be able to benefit?

The area under consideration are all properties within the Parish Boundary of Bretherton. However, the deployment of the proposal will be in a step-by-step way and will seek to ensure the maximum number of properties are connected as soon as possible. This may cause a number of outlying properties to be delayed, or it may prove to be uneconomic to connect every property within the parish. The properties of Barrowford House and Red Bridge Farm, will receive a direct feed to their property, and not through the Community Battery, but would still be included in the 5% available to Bretherton Residents.

Why is the proposed wind turbine located at Asland Park and not offshore or other location?

To provide low-cost electricity directly to the GA factory and parish, the wind turbine needs to be connected via a ‘private wire’, so that is does not suffer from the transmission losses, or the usage costs of the National Grid, which has limited capacity

Will the local ecology and habitat be affected by the Aslands Walks Energy Park?

No, the local ecology and habitat at the Asland Walks Energy Park will actually improve, this is because current the site is under arable cropping. The Asland Walks Energy Park ecology and habitat will be developed by the planting of 15,000 trees along the boundaries of the site bordering field to provide a visual screen and increase wildlife habitats, plus the solar panel arrays provide further shelter for local ecology. Additionally, investigations are being undertaken to identify potential mitigation sites, to minimise any impact on the winter feeding grounds of the Pinked footed geese and Whooper Swans, during a two-year monitoring period which commenced in September 2022.

Why does there need to be both renewable solar and wind generation?

Feasibility studies have made evident that the seasonal generation profile for solar is complementary to wind, as the best solar resource is typically in the summer while the best wind resource is typically in the winter.
Therefore, both technologies are best combined to achieve greater optimisations between project sizing, peak energy demands and load profiles.

GA is a large and continually expanding company, will there always be surplus energy for the energy partnership?

Yes, due to the variability of wind and solar energy plus the variations in pet food production thus site power demand at Plocks Farm there will always be surplus energy provided to Bretherton. Under the proposal Bretherton residents will receive the “first bite of the cherry”, being the first 5% of any generation available.

How much will I save on my bills?

At the moment there isn’t a definitive answer to this question. The financial model of the Bretherton Energy Club means that the operating, management and administration costs need to be covered before any surplus could be shared with the local community. Feasibility studies are currently being carried out that will help to provide a clearer understanding of what these costs might be. Once this information is available it will be shared with the community along with a clearer picture of what savings could look like.