Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How is Carrach different to the previous Mile Hill wind farm proposal?
There are many key differences between this proposal and the previous (now withdrawn) Mile Hill wind farm proposal put forward by Airtricity UK in 2008. Carrach has been developed by a partnership of local landowners with a long-term commitment to bring economic, social and environmental benefits to the local area and its communities.
The Mile Hill proposal comprised six 100 metre high turbines. The nine Carrach turbines (at 84 metres) will be significantly smaller. Although there is some geographic overlap with the previous site, none of the Carrach turbines will be on the top of Mile Hill itself. The turbines in the previous proposal were located more prominently in view of Glen Quharity. There was also more associated infrastructure such as new quarries associated with the Mile Hill proposal.
At the time of the community consultation on Mile Hill, there was little or no discussion about the offer of community financial benefit. This Carrach proposal offers a generous community benefit package and has a strong focus on how to best deliver this to generate significant and lasting improvements to the local area.
Aren't wind farms inefficient?
No form of energy generation is 100% efficient in converting the source of it's power into electricity, for example there are sometimes long periods when reactors in nuclear power stations need to be shut down.
With wind farms there are obviously no fuels to be mined, refined then transported and used during generation. The wind is a free, albeit variable resource.
With wind farms, the output will vary during the course of a year according to seasonal variations and daily weather patterns. There will be times when an individual wind farm's contribution to the grid will be lower or higher compared to those in other parts of the country. There will also be times when the national output of wind farms is lower or higher than the annual average.
According to Scottish Renewables analysis for May 2011 for example, the capacity factor - the amount of energy produced as a proportion of a generator's full theoretical potential - of onshore wind in the UK increased to 41.7 per cent for that month, well above the average of 29 per cent. There were a number of consecutive days in May which saw capacity factors above 60 per cent due to the high winds experienced.
Aren’t wind farms heavily subsidised by taxpayers?
All forms of energy generation are or have been subsidised by taxpayers in some way. Nuclear energy, for example, requires huge public investment to support construction, treatment of waste and de-commissioning.
Operational wind farms help to meet the obligations government places on utility companies to source their electricity from renewable sources. These companies pay an incentive to the renewable generators to make their projects more financially secure, especially when the technology used is still developing. These Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) payments are only made on the basis of the electricity actually generated by renewables. This is then passed onto the electricity bills of all consumers, for 2009-10 the costs of the Renewables Obligation scheme are estimated to have added around £12 to the annual household electricity bill.
This investment is important because it reduces the reliance on fossil fuels for electricity generation now and in the future. The cost of fossil fuels may rise very steeply in the years to come as they become more expensive to extract and as pressures to reduce carbon emissions become even more pressing.
What could the effect be on wildlife and water courses?
As part of the project work to date, extensive work has been conducted to survey the ecology of the area and to assess the ecological and hydrological effects during construction and operation. It has been found that there would be no significant negative impacts caused by the proposal so long as good practice in construction is maintained throughout. The planning submission including the assessment is available to download from Angus Council Planning Department website here
What about the effects on local residents such as noise?
The people living closest to the turbines will be the owners of the project itself.
The planning submission includes noise assessment information and is available to download from Angus Council Planning Department website here
Enercon turbines proposed for the project use a different technology to other turbine manufacturers. The blades are coupled directly onto the generator without need for a gear box for constant electricity generation. This eliminates mechanical or tonal noise produced by conventional turbines. Being variable speed, Enercon turbines rotate more slowly or more quickly depending on wind speed. Aerodynamic noise is low when the wind speed is low and increases with wind speed, blending into background noise levels which also rise or fall with changes in wind speed. The blade tips are also specially designed to reduce wind speed noise.
Will this wind farm affect tourism in the area?
A Scottish Government report in 2008 concluded that wind farm developments have little impact on tourism. Of the visitors surveyed in the study 93-99% said wind farms would have no impact on their decision to return to Scotland. 68% said they felt positive that a 'well sited wind farm does not ruin the landscape' with a further 12% neutral about this statement.
A visitor centre at Europe’s biggest wind farm at Whitelee in Lanarkshire has just had 120,000 visitors in it’s first year of opening, more than four times what was expected.
More than three-quarters of Scots support the development of wind farms, according to an opinion poll commissioned last year by industry body Scottish Renewables. 78 per cent of those surveyed agreed that ‘wind farms are necessary so that we can produce renewable energy to help us meet current and future energy needs in Scotland’.
What colour will the turbines be?
The finish of the wind turbines, towers and blades should be semi-matt and a pale grey in colour. A lot of people ask why turbines are this colour rather than green, brown or even blue. The answer is that turbines in an upland landscape often fall against a backdrop of sky and that the sky is most of the time a colour which matches pale grey, so this is the best colour to blend turbines into the landscape for most conditions.
There are a number of other questions commonly raised about windfarms which are addressed on the Facts page of the Embrace My Planet website.
There are many key differences between this proposal and the previous (now withdrawn) Mile Hill wind farm proposal put forward by Airtricity UK in 2008. Carrach has been developed by a partnership of local landowners with a long-term commitment to bring economic, social and environmental benefits to the local area and its communities.
The Mile Hill proposal comprised six 100 metre high turbines. The nine Carrach turbines (at 84 metres) will be significantly smaller. Although there is some geographic overlap with the previous site, none of the Carrach turbines will be on the top of Mile Hill itself. The turbines in the previous proposal were located more prominently in view of Glen Quharity. There was also more associated infrastructure such as new quarries associated with the Mile Hill proposal.
At the time of the community consultation on Mile Hill, there was little or no discussion about the offer of community financial benefit. This Carrach proposal offers a generous community benefit package and has a strong focus on how to best deliver this to generate significant and lasting improvements to the local area.
Aren't wind farms inefficient?
No form of energy generation is 100% efficient in converting the source of it's power into electricity, for example there are sometimes long periods when reactors in nuclear power stations need to be shut down.
With wind farms there are obviously no fuels to be mined, refined then transported and used during generation. The wind is a free, albeit variable resource.
With wind farms, the output will vary during the course of a year according to seasonal variations and daily weather patterns. There will be times when an individual wind farm's contribution to the grid will be lower or higher compared to those in other parts of the country. There will also be times when the national output of wind farms is lower or higher than the annual average.
According to Scottish Renewables analysis for May 2011 for example, the capacity factor - the amount of energy produced as a proportion of a generator's full theoretical potential - of onshore wind in the UK increased to 41.7 per cent for that month, well above the average of 29 per cent. There were a number of consecutive days in May which saw capacity factors above 60 per cent due to the high winds experienced.
Aren’t wind farms heavily subsidised by taxpayers?
All forms of energy generation are or have been subsidised by taxpayers in some way. Nuclear energy, for example, requires huge public investment to support construction, treatment of waste and de-commissioning.
Operational wind farms help to meet the obligations government places on utility companies to source their electricity from renewable sources. These companies pay an incentive to the renewable generators to make their projects more financially secure, especially when the technology used is still developing. These Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) payments are only made on the basis of the electricity actually generated by renewables. This is then passed onto the electricity bills of all consumers, for 2009-10 the costs of the Renewables Obligation scheme are estimated to have added around £12 to the annual household electricity bill.
This investment is important because it reduces the reliance on fossil fuels for electricity generation now and in the future. The cost of fossil fuels may rise very steeply in the years to come as they become more expensive to extract and as pressures to reduce carbon emissions become even more pressing.
What could the effect be on wildlife and water courses?
As part of the project work to date, extensive work has been conducted to survey the ecology of the area and to assess the ecological and hydrological effects during construction and operation. It has been found that there would be no significant negative impacts caused by the proposal so long as good practice in construction is maintained throughout. The planning submission including the assessment is available to download from Angus Council Planning Department website here
What about the effects on local residents such as noise?
The people living closest to the turbines will be the owners of the project itself.
The planning submission includes noise assessment information and is available to download from Angus Council Planning Department website here
Enercon turbines proposed for the project use a different technology to other turbine manufacturers. The blades are coupled directly onto the generator without need for a gear box for constant electricity generation. This eliminates mechanical or tonal noise produced by conventional turbines. Being variable speed, Enercon turbines rotate more slowly or more quickly depending on wind speed. Aerodynamic noise is low when the wind speed is low and increases with wind speed, blending into background noise levels which also rise or fall with changes in wind speed. The blade tips are also specially designed to reduce wind speed noise.
Will this wind farm affect tourism in the area?
A Scottish Government report in 2008 concluded that wind farm developments have little impact on tourism. Of the visitors surveyed in the study 93-99% said wind farms would have no impact on their decision to return to Scotland. 68% said they felt positive that a 'well sited wind farm does not ruin the landscape' with a further 12% neutral about this statement.
A visitor centre at Europe’s biggest wind farm at Whitelee in Lanarkshire has just had 120,000 visitors in it’s first year of opening, more than four times what was expected.
More than three-quarters of Scots support the development of wind farms, according to an opinion poll commissioned last year by industry body Scottish Renewables. 78 per cent of those surveyed agreed that ‘wind farms are necessary so that we can produce renewable energy to help us meet current and future energy needs in Scotland’.
What colour will the turbines be?
The finish of the wind turbines, towers and blades should be semi-matt and a pale grey in colour. A lot of people ask why turbines are this colour rather than green, brown or even blue. The answer is that turbines in an upland landscape often fall against a backdrop of sky and that the sky is most of the time a colour which matches pale grey, so this is the best colour to blend turbines into the landscape for most conditions.
There are a number of other questions commonly raised about windfarms which are addressed on the Facts page of the Embrace My Planet website.
