Wind power for Norfolk

21 July 2000




Wind power for Norfolk

A GIANT new plant has sprung up in a field at Somerton in Norfolk, the latest in "alternative crops".

It is a large wind turbine which is now being erected at a cost of £1.3m on the edge of a pea field on the Burnley Hall Estate.

The turbine, 67m (220ft) high and weighing 26t, is owned by Next Generation, a specialist wind power company.

It dwarfs a row of 10 other turbines erected on the same farming estate several years ago and, when operational, will supply enough electricity to meet the needs of a town with a population of 4000.

Bob Brewer, managing director of Transacre Limited, the farming company which runs the Burnley Hall Estate, said a lease for the site had been negotiated with Next Generation, but agricultural activities would proceed in the vicinity.

Dale Vince, managing director of the wind power firm, said more opportunities to build wind turbines would be arising as the public warmed to the idea of a "greener" kind of electricity generation. He said farmland suitable for turbines had to be well away from residential property and in areas outside "protected" landscapes where the wind speed made the development economically feasible. &#42

Farming in a different vane… Bob Brewer and the 67m turbine.


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