16 December 2008 09:58
Yorkshire Windpower lodges planning application to halve number of turbines and double power at West Yorkshire wind farm

The application, which will be submitted to Calderdale Council on December 18, will call for the current scheme - consisting of 23 turbines generating 9.2MW of power - to be replaced by 10 turbines generating up to 23MW.

Elizabeth Ambrose, Project Developer at E.ON, said: "The turbines at Ovenden have been supplying reliable, clean, green power for over 15 years now.

"But the fact of the matter is that turbine technology has moved on and we can now produce twice as much power with half as many turbines, which makes sense to us and will hopefully make sense to the council as well."

The new scheme, if approved, would be capable of producing enough power for almost 13,000 homes and displacing the emission of over 22,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

Operated by Yorkshire Windpower, Ovenden has been generating since June 1993, having been built at Hollin Hill, near Warley Moor reservoir. Yorkshire Windpower also owns and operates Royd Moor wind farm at Penistone in South Yorkshire.

Ends

Notes to editors:

• E.ON is one of the UK's leading power and gas companies - 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. It employs around 17,000 people in the UK;
• E.ON is one of the leading green generators in the UK, with 21 wind farms located from Cornwall to Northern Ireland. We also burn biomass material mixed with coal in two of our power stations and have recently completed one of the UK's largest dedicated biomass power stations at Lockerbie. Combined, our renewable portfolio generates enough green energy to power the homes in a city the size of Manchester;
• E.ON's green development portfolio could power over a million homes and displace the emission of almost two million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year by building new onshore and offshore wind farms, biomass power stations, and tidal stream and wave power schemes;
• E.ON's target is to cut the carbon released by each kW of electricity it generates by 10% between 2005-2012, having already reduced it by 20% since 1990;
• E.ON has 1,300MW of renewable capacity under development;
• E.On has invested £100 million in energy efficiency since 2006. These measures included loft and cavity wall insulation, installation of energy efficient boilers and smart metering, a technology we are investing a further £12 million in over the next two years;
• E.ON's non-operational carbon intensity dropped by 16.7% per employee in 2006;
• E.On is investing £50 million in new technologies and approaches over 10 years years, through the Energy Technologies institute;
• E.ON has Biodiversity Action Plans at many of its sites which align it with the UK target of significantly reducing biodiversity loss;
• E.ON Group has announced it intends to reduced the carbon intensity of its generation by 50% by 2030 (on 1990 levels);
• E.ON Group aims to spend €6bn on green generation by the end of 2010.
• EPRL is the UK's leading generator of renewable energy from biomass sources, with five power stations across the UK.

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