Resident Questions

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

The area under consideration includes all properties within the Parish Boundary of Bretherton. However, the deployment of the proposal will be carried out in a step-by-step way and will seek to ensure that 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 has a maximum rated output of 4.2 megawatts. The tower will be 111 metres high, and the tip of the blades will reach a height of 180 metres. For comparison, the wind turbines on Mawdesley Moss are 55 metres 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 are generally regarded as a nuisance, but there are no associated adverse health effects. Certain weather and lighting 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 cloud cover
• The sun, turbine, and window must be aligned 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 at specific times if this is required.

A full report has been commissioned to identify the potential for shadow flicker and glare.

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

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

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 (for example, GEUK or Octopus).

What if I do not live in Bretherton?

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

How noisy will the wind turbine be and will it be heard from the village?

You can stand directly beneath a wind turbine and hold a normal conversation without raising your voice. The sound that is heard is the gentle swoosh of the blades passing through the air. Compared to other common sources of noise, such as roads or wind in the trees, wind turbines are not noisy.

Noise from turbines is taken very seriously throughout the planning process, and a full noise study will form 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 background noise levels are at a minimum, for example at night.

Independent noise surveys will be required, and the methodology must be agreed with the Environmental Protection Team at Chorley Council.

Are birds at risk of collision with the wind turbine?

When choosing a site for a wind turbine, careful consideration must be given to the impact on wildlife from both the construction works and the operation of the turbine. These impacts can be managed effectively through good site selection and design, for example by locating turbines away from sensitive habitats and flight paths used by birds and bats.

The impacts from construction works are similar to those of any development, such as earthworks associated with the construction of access roads and foundations. The key species that may be affected by the operation of the turbine are birds and bats. In most cases, both birds and bats avoid flying into wind turbines.

Habitat loss, road traffic, and domestic cats present a far greater man-made threat to bird populations. With the exception of a few isolated cases caused by poor siting, wind farms have not been associated with any major adverse effects on bird populations. The greatest long-term threat to birds and wildlife is climate change, which can be mitigated by replacing fossil fuel electricity generation with renewable energy generation such as wind power.

Environmental assessments and formal consultation with wildlife bodies are statutory requirements as part of the planning process. This ensures that wind turbines are properly sited to minimise any effects on wildlife.

Will every house in Bretherton be able to benefit?

The area under consideration includes all properties within the Parish Boundary of Bretherton. However, the deployment of the proposal will be carried out in a step-by-step manner and will seek to ensure that the maximum number of properties are connected as soon as possible. This may result in a number of outlying properties experiencing delays, or it may prove uneconomic to connect every property within the parish.

The properties of Barrowford House and Red Bridge Farm will receive a direct feed to their properties rather than through the Community Battery, but they would still be included within the 5 percent of energy available to Bretherton residents.

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

To provide low-cost electricity directly to the GA Pet Food factory and the parish, the wind turbine needs to be connected via a private wire. This avoids transmission losses and avoids the usage charges associated with the National Grid, which also has limited capacity.

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

No. The local ecology and habitat at the Asland Walks Energy Park will actually improve, as the current site is under arable cropping. The ecology and habitat at the Energy Park have already benefited from the planting of 15,000 trees along the site boundaries to provide a visual screen and to increase wildlife habitats. The solar panel arrays also provide further shelter for local ecology.

Additional planting will take place to mitigate any glint or glare impacts from the solar panels on nearby residents. Further ecological enhancement will take place through the rewilding of the remaining field areas with woodland and scrubland to create habitats for skylarks and similar species.

Additionally, investigations have demonstrated no impact on the winter feeding grounds of the pink-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 shown that the seasonal generation profiles of solar and wind are complementary. The best solar resource typically occurs in the summer, while the best wind resource occurs in the winter.

Therefore, both technologies are best combined to achieve greater optimisation of project sizing, peak energy demands, and load profiles.

GA Pet Food is a large and continually expanding company. Will there always be surplus energy for the energy partnership?

Yes. Due to the natural variability of wind and solar energy, as well as the variations in pet food production and therefore site power demand at Plocks Farm, there will always be surplus energy available for Bretherton. Under the proposal, Bretherton residents will receive the first 5 percent of any generation available, giving residents the “first bite of the cherry”.

How much will I save on my bills?

At the moment there is no definitive answer to this question. The financial model of the Bretherton Energy Club requires that operating, management, and administration costs are covered before any surplus can be shared with the local community.

Feasibility studies are currently being carried out 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 future savings could look like.