Resident Questions
What is the catchment area of the 280 houses included in the partnership?
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?
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 The tower will be 111m high. The tip of the blades will reach height of 180m. For comparison, the wind turbines on Mawdesley Moss are 55m high.
What about ‘shadow flicker’?
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?
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.
Do I require a smart meter to be a participant?
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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
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?
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 has been 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. Additional planting will take place in order to mitigate any glint or glare impacts from the solar panels on nearby resident. Further ecological enhancement will take place with a ‘rewilding’ of the remaining field areas with woodland and scrubland to create habitats for Skylarks and similar species. Additionally, investigations demonstrate no 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