10 January 2007 00:00
E.ON UK applies to repower its Sunderland wind farm and looks after smallest residents

E.ON UK, one of the UK’s leading green power companies, has submitted a planning application to repower its Great Eppleton wind farm near Hetton-le-Hole.

The wind farm currently features four two-bladed wind turbines that were built in 1997. The new scheme, which has been lodged with Sunderland City Council, calls for the old turbines to be removed and replaced with state-of-the-art machines that could quadruple the capacity of the scheme.

In addition, the company is sponsoring Durham Wildlife Trust’s ‘Coals to Voles’ water vole recovery project in the Hetton area, which is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The company has agreed to sponsor a water vole survey within 4km of Great Eppleton and could expand that work in the future.

Darren Cuming, Project Developer for E.ON UK, said: “The turbine design at Great Eppleton is very unusual for the UK in that they have two blades rather than three.

“They’re also not very powerful when compared to a modern turbine and so we’re looking to take the old ones out and replace them with much more powerful ones.
“Those new machines could both produce enough electricity for more than 5,000 homes and displace the emission of 21,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.”

The current turbines are rated at 750kW and are 71m high to blade tip. The new ones would be between 2MW and 3MW and would be up to 115m to blade tip.

Karen McArthur, from the Durham Wildlife Trust, said: “The aim of our survey is to safeguard existing water vole populations and to improve habitats in surrounding areas to allow the numbers of voles to increase naturally.

“Without work such as this, it is possible that the water vole could become extinct, so we’re obviously very grateful to E.ON for its support.”

E.ON is one of the leading green generators in the UK, with 20 wind farms located from Cornwall to Northern Ireland. The company also burns biomass material mixed with coal in two of its power stations and is currently building the UK’s largest dedicated biomass power station at Lockerbie. It owns the largest hydro power station in England and Wales.

Combined, E.ON UK’s renewable portfolio generates enough green energy to power the homes in a city the size of Manchester.

Ends

Notes to editors:
E.ON is the UK’s largest integrated power and gas company – generating and distributing electricity, and retailing power and gas – and is part of the E.ON group, the world's largest investor-owned power and gas company. We employ around 15,000 people in the UK.

For more information contact:
Jonathan Smith on 024 7618 3676
Rebecca Middleton on 024 7618 3677