The windfarm site is located to the north of Maerdy and Treorchy
(See figure 1).
Figure
1: Windfarm Location
The windfarm is
sited on a plateau of upland grazing land (See Figure 2). To the north
of the site is the Lluest-wen reservoir; to the south Treorchy; to
the east the disused Maerdy Colliery Site and coal tip; and to the
west the Tynewydd Forest.
Figure 2: Windfarm Layout
There would be
eight wind turbines, each with a tower height of 80 m and three 44
m blades, painted white, together with the hub giving a total height
to the tip of the turbine blade of 125 m. Each wind turbine is 3 MW
installed capacity producing electricity equivalent to the annual
consumption of 1 700 UK households. The eight turbines would supply
total electricity equivalent to the consumption of 13 600 homes each
year.
Electricity from
each turbine is carried back to a windfarm substation by underground
cables. The windfarm substation is sited on lower ground in the north-west
of the site adjacent to forestry and consists of a 20 m x 10 m single
storey building clad in local stone, with external electrical equipment
and a belt of new tree planting around it. Other equipment includes
an 80 m anemometer mast to measure the wind, 2.5 m wide at the base
and 40 cm at the top.
The windfarm substation
would be connected to the Maerdy Town substation 1.5 km to the southwest
of the windfarm. The connection will be undertaken and owned by the
operator of the local electricity network; Western Power Distribution
(WPD), and is not part of the windfarm planning application. Connection
would either be overhead wooden pole line similar to that surrounding
the site or underground line. The route has not been decided, but
would likely be either adjacent to an existing overhead line or adjacent
to the reservoir road from Maerdy colliery site, before branching
west to the windfarm (See Figure 2).
Construction will
last 9-12 months and will involve temporary stone crane pads adjacent
to each turbine and a temporary construction compound located adjacent
to the forestry. Stone access tracks connect the wind turbines and
substation enabling the construction; these are reduced in size, but
left in-situ, following construction to allow access for maintenance.
Access to the
windfarm is from near the top of the A4061 Hirwaun-Treherbert road,
along an existing forestry track. All substantial traffic will be
from the north with potential quarries to the north and turbines delivered
on the A465 from Swansea (See Figure 3).
Figure 3: Access
The windfarm would
operate for 25 years after which it would be decommissioned. Decommissioning
takes 3 - 6 months and involves removal of all turbines and other
surface infrastructure to ground level. Underground foundations (2
m deep) and cables are left in-situ and landscaped over, as it would
be more disturbing to remove them. The grid connection would be removed
unless it was needed for some other part of the electricity network
by then. The access tracks would all be covered over and revegetated,
save any the local authority permitted to be retained for farming
use.
An independent
bank bond will be provided to the local authority so that they have
the security to remove the windfarm to their own satisfaction if the
windfarm operator did not honour their obligations. Any windfarm on
the site beyond 25 years would be the subject of planning policy and
permission at the time.
