by Alan Quick

THE company building the Den Brook Wind Farm in the Den Brook Valley between Bow, Spreyton and North Tawton recently welcomed a group of Year 12 science and engineering students studying at the Globe English Centre, Exeter to the site to learn about renewable energy and the wind farm construction process.

The Den Brook team gave an overview of Renewable Energy Systems (RES), renewable energy and the construction process to-date on the wind farm.

The students also enjoyed a vehicle tour of the wind farm and visited a turbine location to discuss the civil engineering build and planned turbine installation process.

The French students were spending a fortnight with family-run, Globe English Centre to improve their English language skills.

The tour of the wind farm encouraged some insightful questions from the students and the teachers who accompanied them.

Iain MacCallum, Den Brook’s construction site manager, said: “We were happy to welcome the students to Den Brook as part of their UK trip.

“We are always keen to talk about the benefits of renewable energy as well as the work that goes into developing and constructing a wind farm.”

Chrissi Florides, director of studies at the Globe English Centre, said: “It was a fantastic and friendly welcome to all the students.

“The visit was very informative and insightful, especially for those studying STEM subjects. We thank all the team that were involved and hope the remainder of the project continues to be successful and educational for others.”

Component parts for the turbines, 72 in total, are in the process of being delivered to the wind farm site.

DELIVERIES

The 27 blades for the turbines have been delivered and the 27 base towers and nine nacelles will be delivered from July 19-22 and July 25-29. The mid and top sections of the turbines will be delivered from August 1-5 and 8-11.

The turbines are being transported in sections from Avonmouth port. The final part of the journey to the site sees them leave the A30 to join the A382 at Whiddon Down.

The convoys join the A3124, using the new link road at Whiddon Down, and then at de Bathe Cross turn right on to the A3072 which is followed to the site entrance.

For up-to-date information on the progress of deliveries, please visit the website: www.den-brook.co.uk .

The wind farm of nine 120 metre high (to the tip of the blade) turbines will have an installed capacity of 18 megawatts of renewable electricity.

RES says this is sufficient to meet the annual average needs of approximately 9,000 UK homes. It says the homes equivalent has been calculated by multiplying the wind farm’s predicted energy yield of 37.55GWh by the 2013 UK annual household energy consumption data published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (4128kWh).

RES will erect the turbines from August to November and they will then be brought into operation in November.

A community benefit fund will begin operation when the wind farm is operational.

Local residents fear property prices may drop once the turbines are built and have expressed other concerns about noise and visual aspect.