UK: Local windfarm is threatened by RWE's new nuclear plans

RWE’s plan for a new nuclear power station at Kirksanton, near Sellafield, would mean the destruction of a community-owned wind farm already producing electricity on the site.

The three companies running the Haverigg wind project on the Cumbrian coast only found out that their land was part of the German utility’s plan when the full list of nominated sites was published by the Government earlier this month.
Colin Palmer, the founder of Windcluster, one of the companies with turbines at the site, said: “RWE is planning to knock down our windmills to build a nuclear power station but they didn’t even have the decency to contact us.”

Haverigg produces around 17 gigawatt hours of electricity every year, enough to power 3,700 households. “We could get nearly 10 times the capacity if we used the whole site, but we wanted something that was in scale with the local landscape,” Mr Palmer said.

Although two of the turbines are not within the perimeter of RWE’s nomination, the whole cluster would be put out of action.

Independent