Wind of Coast (WICO) update
Marine South East continues to work with the Italian and Spanish partners towards a set of guidelines to assist public authorities, businesses and members of the public understand the policy, planning, economics and technology involved with small wind turbines.
The UK has the best wind resources in Europe and is in the forefront of the small wind energy business. It is home to a number of leading manufacturers who achieved a 45.4% growth in export market revenues in 2009. Since 1 April 2010 the small wind industry has been boosted by the new Feed-In Tariff (FIT) scheme that offers generous rewards for electricity generated using a range of technologies. Energy from small wind systems is now particularly attractive for businesses situated in windy coastal locations.
The key issue for any wind turbine will always be 'location, location, location' and the quality of the available wind resource, however the FIT scheme dramatically reduces pay-back times and makes more installation sites potentially profitable. The FIT scheme pays a generous tariff for all the electricity generated from renewable sources. For example, wind turbines of less than 1.5KW rated output attract a tariff of 34.5p per kWh, index linked for 20 years. Any surplus electricity exported to the grid attracts an additional 3p/kWh.
Obtaining planning permission for small wind systems should soon be simplified with the overdue introduction of 'General Permitted Development Orders' (GPDO).
As many of the most favourable sites for small wind turbines are in coastal locations MSE is hosting a workshop to explain the relevant issues surrounding small wind systems to an audience of marine businesses. This event is being held in partnership with Envirobusiness during the Seawork 2010 exhibition in Southampton. For details of the event please visit: http://www.marinesoutheast.co.uk/events/ and to register go to: http://www.marinesoutheast.co.uk/make_booking/?id=2356
For more information please contact Simon Powell +44 (0) 2380 111 592
simon@marinesoutheast.co.uk
Wind of the Coast (WICO), has recently produced an e brochure which is now available to download from the WICO website:
http://www.marinesoutheast.co.uk/wico/downloads/
The WICO project will also be sending out a number of e newsletters during the life of the project and interested companies are able to subscibe to receive the newsletter at:
http://www.marinesoutheast.co.uk/wico/news/#subs
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