A youth centre is hoping to build a wind turbine on nearby farmland to help with its funding.
Senghenydd Youth Drop-in Centre (SYDIC) has been awarded £42,000 to help build the Aber Valley Community Turbine on Senghenydd Mountain near Graig-yr-Hufen Farm.
The centre has suffered from recent cuts to its funding. Money raised by the sale of electricity generated by the wind turbine will go towards funding its core activities.
The scheme is the brainchild of Dave Brunton, Project Manager of SYDIC.
Mr Brunton explained the idea for the wind turbine came from a similar community project in the Rhondda and that it had taken around five years to get it to the planning stage. United Welsh Housing Association helped to get the project going with its Head of Community Investment Steve Cranston advising.
He said: “The idea behind it to bring in income to core fund SYDIC and secure youth services in the Aber Valley for the next 25 years.”
The £42,000 of Welsh Government funding will pay for the planning application and other outstanding studies and it is hoped that if approved, the wind turbine could be built next summer.
However the challenge to pay for its £60,000 cost has yet to be met, but Mr Brunton is confident he can raise the money either through further grant cash or a commercial loan.
If built, the 76 metre high 500kw wind turbine could potentially bring in around £50,000 a year for SYDIC – a welcome shot in the arm given that it has lost around £65,000 worth of funding over the last 18 months.
Mr Brunton said that because of the cuts, the centre, on Gwern Avenue, can only open three nights a week instead of the usual four.
He said: “It is hard, but we are doing what we can to keep going.”
Natural Resources Minister Carl Sargeant said: “I am delighted to be able to award this additional money to the Senghenydd Youth Drop-in Centre which clearly shows the Welsh Government’s commitment to wind power and renewable energy and helping communities to access funds directly to improve their local areas.
“Schemes like this bring significant economic, social and environmental benefits to communities and this project is expected to fund SYDICs core activities which can increase the employability chances of young people in the area.”
The problem with a single turbine installation is that if anything goes wrong, gearbox failure or similar, the entire system produces nothing until fixed. This means that it is very difficult to estimate future production. I suggest that a technical support company is chosen with great care to maintain and repair. Preferably one that keeps spares in stock to reduce lead time. SYDIC has probably arranged this but such cover will be costly.
I trust they’ve completed a rigorous feasibility study for this wind turbine, after the one in Aberystwyth which only generated £5 per month and was a complete waste of money, and with the subsidies being cut do the figures really add up, although the Welsh Assembly will chuck huge amounts of money at any project that mentions ‘green energy’ and ‘sustainability’.
What a stupid, short-sighted idea this is.
£60,000 cost to build (only £42,000 has been accounted for so far) and for the average 500kw turbine the average operating and maintenance cost is £26,000 while generating £50,000. In a year that is a £24,000 profit provided everything goes to plan. It sounds great but remember the turbines operate in winds under 8.5m/s, and often end up producing no energy if there is too little wind or too much wind.
Why should people have to suffer from an ugly wind turbine when money could be raised by being entrepreneurial?
In order to attract such a significant grant of public money towards this project, the organisers will have had to comply with both a sustainabiliy and longevity test. Presumably they have covered all the issues commentators on this site have raised BEFORE money from the public purse has been handed out. and, the Welsh Assembly will have undetaken all due diligence in respect to the gifting of public money, won`t they?.
My Farmhouse and property is the closest to this proposed wind turbine and I have not been contacted by anyone or any organisation! I have to find out by local news paper that plans for a Huge wind turbine is to be built only a few hundred feet from my front door. The current mast there is noisey and keeps my family awake so a 250ft wind turbine would make matters worse !
Before any sustainability or longevity calculations were carried out I would have thought that someone would have had the decency to speak or contact me about this matter as myself and my family are going to be affected the most !
So would I have thought the questions you pose would be required to be addressed by the Welsh Assembly Grants Officers, before this money being signed off by the Minister, Carl Seargent. If there is any remaining question about planning approval, impact surveys, concerns of local resiidents, easments over or under land, etc this puts the entire project under threat, it is the role of the Welsh Assembly to ensure that all these matters are settled BEFORE they invest our, ratepayers and tax payers money in such ways.
If there is any doubt that all these matters have been addressed then you may want to seek information from the Minister Carl Seargent. You are entitled to contact him direct at the Assembly and he is obliged to respond to you under Welsh Assembly :Protocols, it maybe of course this grant is for undertaking a feasability study into the proposal and no more than that..