What is Delabole wind farm doing about keeping it green, and how much extra power can be produced with bigger turbines?

Wind Farms can generate a lot of wind power, Delabole wind farm produces enough power to run up to 2700 homes. It produced roughly 12 million Kw hours; this means that supplying this many houses with power generated from wind is saving the earth either 2000 tonnes of oil or 5000 tonnes of coal, which stops roughly 12000 tonnes of carbon dioxide and 120 tonnes of sulphur and nitrous oxide.

Delabole wind farm was built in 1991,making it the first wind farm in Britain, it took three months to construct the turbines but only 15 days to erect them and get them commissioned. This meant that when building it it didn't make a difference to the houses and businesses around it.

Sustainable technology is very important, the concept is using what humans need from the earth but making sure there is enough resources for the future. This statement is hard to believe which is why many people are now looking into re-newable resources. Wind power is one of the developments that is trying to do this, it uses wind power to generate power for homes around it without taking to much from the land. There is a growing concern for the environment and our carbon footprints, which is why every source of renewable resources is of high demand. Wind farms are a form of technology which many people would like to help with because all they need to do is take their electricity from the wind farm. However you can only use this electricity if you live near an area with a wind farm.

I choose this subject because every time I would visit Cornwall I would see the huge wind turbines and always wondered what they were. This piece of writing is going to help me to understand how and why they are used. I am also interested in the "green" issue and so this subject helps me understand what can be done to help the planet even more. Researching this topic has already given me an insight into the types of technology that is being used today to help keep the planet green. Some of these include solar power and tidal power.

Delabole wind farm is working on a project called “re-power Delabole” to build new turbines which are bigger but with the aim to have less of them. They hope that this will increase the amount of wind harnessed and turned into power. This project is targeted to last over the life time of the wind farm, this means that there will be jobs on this wind farm for the future.

Delabole wind farm has built it turbines with its surroundings in mind, for example they make sure all the wiring is done underground so that the land can be used for farming etc. This is why the planning for the wind farm takes into account that the turbines cannot be put any closer to the surrounding houses. It also takes into account that noise pollution cannot be affected. I believe that the re-powering of Delabole will have a good impact overall on many aspects, which is why I am going to more work on this.

My plan of inquiry includes contacting the people who are involved in this project to ask them about how they intend to improve the wind farm without interfering with environment and the housing surrounding the farm. I will be asking questions such as:

- How do they intend on making sure there are jobs for the future for the people already working on it?
- How much extra power will the turbines produce, and does this cause any extra noise pollution or any other kind of pollution?
- Are there any other plans for the wind farm to help with keeping the planet green?

I will also be using different websites and information from magazines to give me up to date statistics on how the wind farm is working and what the people around are doing to help.

Hopefully doing this study will help me find out further how much the wind farm is going to change and is it for the better, and also find out whether the change is going to help the “green” issue. I hope that once I have found the answers to my questions I will be able to show that the change of this wind farm is for the better.