Scout Moor Wind Farm is the second largest onshore wind farm in England. The site occupies 1,347 acres of open moorland between Edenfield, Rawtenstall and Rochdale. A protest group was formed to resist the proposed construction, and attracted support from the botanist and environmental campaigner David Bellamy. Despite the opposition, planning permission was granted in 2005 and construction began in 2007.
About Scout Moor Wind Farm in brief
Scout Moor Wind Farm is the second largest onshore wind farm in England. The site occupies 1,347 acres of open moorland between Edenfield, Rawtenstall and Rochdale. A protest group was formed to resist the proposed construction, and attracted support from the botanist and environmental campaigner David Bellamy. Despite the opposition, planning permission was granted in 2005 and construction began in 2007. Although work on the project was hampered by harsh weather, difficult terrain, and previous mining activity, the wind farm was officially opened on 25 September 2008. In 2012 Peel Energy sold its 50% share in the facility to Munich Re’s asset management division MEAG. The other 50% holding was also purchased by MEAG from HgCapital Renewable Power Partners. The UK Government has set a target of 10% for the proportion of the UK’s electricity produced by renewable energy by 2010. Wind power in the UK has a long history of controversy, with an average approval rate for planning permission of only 28% for on shore wind farms. In 2002 a poll showed that 88% of respondents thought wind farms were a very or fairly good idea, 72% thought the Scout Moor project was a very good idea and 63% stated wind power as the preferred energy source. The presence of coal under Scout Moor led to extensive and unrecorded shallow coal mining in the area during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Adits, shafts and coal seams from that period mark the landscape. One meaning of scout is a long ridge of rock, appearing to ‘shoot out’ horizontally. The word is thought to be a corruption of the Old English sceot, meaning ‘shot’ or ‘to shoot’, suggesting Anglo-Saxon settlement in the locality at a very ancient time. The eastern fringe of Scout Moor wind Farm extends to Hail Storm Hill, one of the 180 Marilyns of England. The wind farm has a nameplate capacity of 65 MW of electricity, providing 154,000 MW·h per year; enough to serve the average needs of 40,000 homes. The turbines are visible from as far away as south Manchester, 15–20 miles away. The proposal to build a wind farm, in a joint venture between United Utilities and Peel Holdings, was announced in 2003. Shortly afterwards a pressure group, The Friends of Scout and Knowle Moor, was formed, and on 9 September 2003 representatives of the group attended a meeting of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury’s, Ramsbottom and Tottington Area Board to oppose the plans. Among the objections were that the scheme was contrary to the Unitary Development and the Green Belt, and would adversely affect land, open countryside and special areas of importance.
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This page is based on the article Scout Moor Wind Farm published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 03, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
