Wiltshire Community Wind Energy

Home Page

 
Home News Why Wind? Why Wiltshire? How to help! Contacts Links

 Welcome                                                                                                                                         See the news page           

Wiltshire Community Wind Energy is a voluntary local Wiltshire group established in 2008. Our aim is to:

Promote the building of community led wind farms in Wiltshire to play our part in responding to the increasing risks from climate change to our way of life and the important and fragile ecology and landscape of Wiltshire

For 650 years from about 1248 to the early 20th century over 100 windmills helped to power our county only to be replaced by the steam engines of the industrial revolution. The reliance on fossil fuels has only occurred recently and it is a situation that cannot continue if our county is to maintain its unique habitats and way of life.

We are a practical and positive group!                                                           

It is too easy today to say nothing can be done about climate change, but we feel that by the way we live, combined with such renewable energy options as wind power we can make  real impact. We know that location and design of wind farms is paramount to their success from environmental, technical and economic points of view.

We have a two stage plan:

Stage 1:

  • Help identify potential areas for wind turbines - with environmental and landscape implications being a fundamental issue

  • Talk with farmers, other landowners and the local community (including organisations such as the Wildlife Trust) to build support

We are at this stage now (Summer 2009) and many members of the group have sent out letters and we have also received direct approaches from landowners - an exciting time to get involved.

Stage 2:

  • When encouraging options have been identified we aim to help take them forward potentially as a community led project (as has recently been achieved at the Westmill Wind Farm) or through other commercial arrangements if this is what the landowner wants to do.

The links above describe some of the background, some of our ideas and most importantly how you can help! I hope you enjoy it.

We have now reached the stage where we have identified a short list of possible sites and we want to do some more investigations. Please see the news page for more details and get involved!

Jack Mason, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, UK June 2009