Environmental Impact Assessment
Site Selection
Choosing the right area for a wind farm is very important. The site should be outside of (but not necessarily distant from) nationally designated landscapes and ecological areas and where possible near to other infrastructure such as commercial or industrial developments, roads and railways to help mitigate the limited environmental impacts arising from the development.
In Milton Keynes, the places where wind farms can go are limited. To the south-west of the M1 much of the land is zoned for residential and industrial development or is reserved by landowners for possible other future residential and industrial development plans. A wind farm needs to be some distance from residential properties (both existing and proposed) and as the wind turbines need to be spaced apart, the total land area required is large (despite the actual “footprint” of each turbine being quite small). To the south is Cranfield Airport, therefore any wind farm developments need to avoid this area and be sited towards the north, near good roads and grid connection.
Milton Keynes Wind Farm is such a location and would be operating for a period of twenty-five years on land comprising part of the Petsoe Manor Farm, located 2.5km east of Emberton, and north of Milton Keynes city along the A509.
The site:
- Has an adequate wind resource, above 6 m/s at 45m height
- Is close to the local electricity distribution grid infrastructure
- Has good access as it is close to the A509 road, linking the site to the motorway network
- Is in an area north-east of the M1 where agreements with landowners are possible to facilitate the building of a windfarm
- Is away from a high density of telecommunications links in central Milton Keynes and Bow Brickhill
- Is far enough away from Cranfield Airport
- Is in a large enough land area, free from the restrictions of isolated properties, to accommodate a small wind farm. The distance to the nearest non-landowner residence is over 850m
Click here to view the Environmental Statement Documents
Click here to view the Supplementary Environmental Information
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