Showdown on new wind farm plans?

8:58am Thursday 13th April 2006

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A GAUNTLET thrown down by a Brent Knoll wind farm protest group has been seized by the developers - who have warned "we will show them".

Over the past month a claim and counter-claim relationship has developed between developers Ecotricity and kNOll to Windfarm.

"I call for them to come and meet with us, bring their expert and their methodology - we will show them the error of their ways."

Dale Vince, Ecotricity founder.

But this week things looked to be heading towards a showdown as green company founder Dale Vince again rubbished the group's expert and challenged them to meet him face-to-face.

The call came after the protest group released its latest statement criticising the five-turbine plans for Inner Farm and directly referring to comments made by Mr Vince to the Weekly News.

In our March 29 edition the Ecotricity boss dismissed the action group's claims the machines would produce much less power than announced - questioning who had calculated their figures.

Now kNOll has unmasked its experts in a bid to show the figures its members have quoted are the correct ones.

"We have consulted two eminent technical sources Dr John Constable of the Renewable Energy Foundation, and Alan Spencer, a professional electrical engineer with more than 30 years experience in the UK electricity supply industry with wide experience in operational and advisory positions," spokesman Andrew Manning said.

"We stand by our methodology and conclusions that a significantly lower level of energy would be generated by the five turbines currently proposed by Ecotricity for the site.

"We also note that Ecotricity has recently been admonished by the Advertising Standards Authority concerning claims it made for power generation at Swaffham - one of its few sites in the UK.

"We are also intrigued how Ecotricity proposes to supply 8,000 local homes without using the National Grid. This seems far-fetched. We believe there is a growing credibility gap for Ecotricity's proposals."

But these latest comments have done nothing to alter the green company's vision.

Dale Vince told the Weekly News: "I understand they have used an engineer with 30 years of electrical experience. That doesn't count for anything, the kNOll group and their expert are not experts in wind and that is why they are not right.

"The ASA accepted that there was a mistake made and that there was no deception going on. Regarding the grid - they say they don't know how we are going to do without the national grid. We are using the local grid. It's that simple.

"I call for them to come and meet with us, bring their expert and their methodology - we will show them the error of their ways."

Don't forget you can add your voice to the ongoing debate by voting in our Brent Knoll wind farm poll to the right of this article - more than 250 votes have been cast so far.