Applied Geophysics group get wind turbine guidelines relaxed

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Posted on 07 January 2011

Research by Keele's Applied and Environmental Geophysics Research Group (AEG) has led to the Ministry of Defence agreeing to relax the guidelines on small wind turbines in Southern Scotland, where they became inadvertently subject to the same constraints as the giant turbines and were restricted because of the vibration effects on the UK Test Ban Treaty Monitoring site at Eskdalemuir. This affected many farmers and domestic installations from Carlisle to Glasgow.

The MoD/DE, which funded previous large-scale studies together with GAIA, a small turbine manufacturer, provided some enabling research funding for Professor Peter Styles,  with  Rachel Westwood (NERC PhD student)  and Sam Toon, to extend the research, including monitoring of vibrations from small and micro wind turbines and possible future research by the AEG. The MoD has decided to extend the interim position on what can be considered a negligible contribution to the Eskdalemuir (EKA) seismometer array "noise budget", when considering consent to build and operate small turbines in the statutory consultation zone around EKA.

The intention of the extension to the current interim position is to allow effective exploitation of the research by the Keele group to allow assessment by the AEG and MoD experts on whether specific design-types of small turbine can be permitted in the consultation zone. Turbines will be validated by Keele and then agreed with the MoD and then will become permitted for installation. Other invalidated  turbines will remain subject to the previous limits.

Professor Styles, pictured above, said: "This is a very sensible approach to a problem which arose when microgeneration became inadvertently subject to the essential constraints which are placed on large turbines and enables deployment to take place without prejudicing the monitoring capabilities of the Eskdalemuir Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty station."

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