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REG Windpower responds to criticism of M4/M48 Wind Farm proposals from Ashley Fox MEP:

Fox is wrong on noise, wrong on subsidies and even gets the company name wrong

Ashley Fox's opposition to wind farms is well known, so while we are disappointed he has opted to oppose the proposal it is not a surprise. Unfortunately his comments demonstrate a lack of understanding of the proposals, even to the extent that he has referenced the incorrect company as promoting the plans.

Noise will be strictly regulated within the limits set by South Glos Council, but in real terms the noise of the turbines is extremely unlikely to be heard above the existing background noise from the motorways.

Subsidies for wind power have recently been reduced and will continue to be so as the technology matures. Subsidies have been a feature of both renewable and non-renewable energy production. In terms of the cost to customers a study published this week by Ofgem shows the figure to be less than £5 per customer, per year.

Ashley Fox was one of the signatories of the recent anti-wind farm letter which unfortunately saw some backbench Conservatives seeking to undermine the efforts of David Cameron to address climate change concerns and to encourage a greater environmental awareness in his party. It was no surprise that the Prime Minister responded strongly to restate onshore wind was an important part of the country’s energy mix.

Politicians have the opportunity to harness clean, green, domestically produced energy but to do so they need to move beyond the vague ‘something else, somewhere else’ solution.

Keeping you up to date

We will keep you up to date with our surveys by sending newsletters (you can sign up in the box to the left) and updating this website. We woiuld also welcome your feedback. You can complete our online survey here.

We hope that the EIA will be ready by February 2012 and then we will show you what we have found out at a Public Exhibition, so that you can let us know what you think.

After we have had your comments and thoughts we will see if we can make any final changes and then we hope to submit the application to the Council.

REG Windpower responds to Olveston Parish Council survey:

Well intentioned survey does not stand up to scrutiny

We were grateful to Olveston Parish Council for approaching us while preparing the survey to ask for our input, unfortunately they did not respond to our request to see the final version prior to printing. Had they done so, we could have assisted to ensure they had up to date and accurate information. As it was, our contributions were largely ignored. We would also imagine that the council would seek to use REG Windpower’s knowledge to produce a genuinely balanced leaflet. When we were presented with a final copy of the leaflet, we submitted the corrections noted below.

It appears a legitimate attempt to seek local views was taken over by opponents of the proposals who chose to include discredited reports and inaccurate data which supported their position. The end result has been a one-sided survey which fails as a robust examination of views.

The results of the survey quoted during the Development Control Committee have not been made available to us, so it would be difficult to comment on the outcomes. It is telling that the survey was only made available to the opponents of the scheme.

We will be publishing all feedback received from our public exhibitions as part of the planning application.

It is essential that councillors have evidence-based information from which to make their decisions. We will continue to provide information and we hope that Olveston Parish Council will ensure that any further evidence they provide is researched with appropriate rigour.

Comments emailed to Olveston Parish Council on 30th January 2012

I would like to clarify a few points that the leaflet has raised as a courtesy:

• There is no legislation in Europe to ensure a 1.5km distance from wind turbines, nor is there a policy in Scotland for a minimum of 2km from residential properties. In France the minimum distance is 500m, as stated in Grenelle 2. The Scottish guidance is that large Windfarms, over 50MW, should be located over 2km from settlements, but there is no policy on smaller scale developments.

• Noise is studied using the ETSU 1997 guidelines and Institute of Acoustics bulletin. I have attached a map of the noise levels surrounding the motorways in the area and the noise that wind turbines emits so that you can compare the two.

• We have carried out a years worth of bird and bat surveys on the site to ensure that the turbines do not have a negative impact on the ecology of the area. Interestingly enough post operational studies on the Bristol Port turbines have shown that there is an actual increase in the bird populations for some species near the turbines.

• The report produced by Nina Pierpoint has been dismissed by the NHS - http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/08August/Pages/Arewindfarmsahealthrisk.aspx I have also attached a recent report on wind turbines that is independent and peer reviewed which looks into Health Impacts

• Wind turbines are efficient, as efficiency is mainly a cost of fuel, however as we discussed at the meeting the maximum efficiency of a wind turbine is the amount of energy they can extract from the wind, which is 57%. Overall we estimate that the turbines will be operational and generating electricity approximately 85% of the time. We will be able to provide more detailed figures for the M48/M4 site once we have more information about the wind profile on site.

• The conclusion of the RICS report carried out in 2004 states the following – “However, there is evidence to suggest that the ‘threat’ of a wind farm may have a more significant impact that the actual presence of one. Even this may not translate into lower house prices if the community are actively involved in the process and enjoy some of the benefits through lower, or greener, fuel costs.The study itself may be seen as inconclusive as there was limited linear relationship between house prices and distance. But, it does suggest that other variables related to the presence of wind farms, not included in this particular analysis, may be amongst the main drivers of house price in these locations”

If you need any further information on any of the points above or would like any other information, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

What have we done so far?

We have contacted several statutory consultees whose jobs are to protect various interests.

This includes, for example, aviation bodies, Natural England and South Gloucestershire Council.

We have received feedback from all of the above and made changes to where we put the turbines, such as away from hedges to protect bats and away from the pylons that criss-cross the site.

We are now carrying out surveys that have been recommended by some of the bodies above, such as:

• Bat and Bird surveys

• Cultural Heritage and Archaeology desk based assessments

• Flood Risk Assessments

• Transport Access Assessments

• Landscape and Visual Impact Assessments

• Public Rights of Way Surveys

Let us know what you think

We would like to hear from you. Our online feedback form only takes a few minutes to fill in and will help us develop our propsal.

What next?

To help us carry out more in depth surveys on the site we have submitted a scoping request to South Gloucestershire Council.

This tells the Council what surveys we have done so far and other surveys we plan to do for the wind turbines. We also explain how we are going to assess the potential environmental effects. The Council can then recommend we do more surveys or tell us they are happy with what we are doing.

We are also submitting an application for a 16m meteorological mast. This will measure wind speeds on the site so we can be sure that we choose the right turbine for the site.

Environmental impact statement

So we can build the wind turbines we will need to gather information for an Environmental Impact Assessment to submit to the council with the Planning Application.

This is a large document which contains lots of information about the current site and any potential effects that the turbines may have.

Some of the areas we will look into include:

• National and Local Planning policies

• How the turbines will look in the landscape

• Birds and Bats

• How the turbines can help the local economy

• If the turbines will effect any airports or aeroplanes

• The transport route for the turbines to take to get onto the site

Once we have had feedback from the council on our scoping request then we will start to look at the areas listed above and others.