Wind Turbine Community Benefits

The purpose of the Eden Clean Energy wind turbine is to make Eden self-sufficient in electricity. Indeed, the model chosen will make it possible for us to sell energy back to the grid. It is our intention, once maintenance and the cost of servicing the loan needed to finance the turbine have been taken into account, to distribute a proportion of any surplus for the benefit of the local community.

Letter from Tim Smit to our local community

Eden has just welcomed its 10 millionth visitor, a proud moment for the 500-strong Eden team. We began our journey in 1996/97 and made twenty village hall presentations (many of you may remember the ones at Tregrehan, Trethurgy and St Blazey), lugging in our lumpy Perspex model and maps of the area which we all pored over for hours of animated discussion. I write now to ask whether you would join us for some further discussion. We are considering the possibility of erecting a Clean Energy wind turbine on our site, for the reasons explained below, and are seeking your views on this.

In the spirit of our cordial neighbour relations to date, we don’t feel it appropriate to seek planning consent for a turbine without first soliciting your opinion. We have identified a site on our land where a wind turbine would be effective (in fact there is only one place where it could go). This is on the northern part of the site adjacent to Melon Car Park – the one with a small turbine already installed. Our intention would be to use the energy we need from the turbine and sell any surplus back to the grid. It is also our intention that a portion of the revenue generated year on year (after servicing the money we would borrow to build it) should go into a fund to be administered by the community for the common good.

Why are we doing this? Here at Eden we have been looking at the economy in general and energy prices in particular with increasing alarm. Is there a family in Cornwall that hasn’t? It isn’t just the cost, though, it is also the realisation of how vulnerable we are to the whims of those that supply us (I am talking here of nations rather than companies!). Living right at the end of the supply line only serves to increase that unease. As an environmental project we audit our energy use and run as lean a ship as we can. We are reliant on gas for the indoor heating of the plant collection, but have recently brought a biomass boiler into operation (albeit with fairly mixed results at this early stage). We buy green tariff electricity and augment this with our solar panel system on the Core, our education building. However, our dearest wish is to move away from reliance on fossil fuels. Many of you may know that we were interested in the hydro possibilities in the Luxulyan Valley, but were unable to secure a supply from there, and we have looked at further solar and geo-thermal systems. None of these are, as yet, capable of providing what we need at a price we can afford. So…while wave/tidal energy may hold part of the key in the long term, the only realistic alternative that would answer our need is wind.

This letter is by way of being an invitation to come and have a chat about our plans, and about how the community fund should operate and the priorities that you feel it might address. We have booked Trethurgy Village Hall for the first of these meetings on August 8-9. I really do hope you will come and give us the benefit of your views.

Kind regards
Tim Smit

What sort of rewards?

The baseline figures generally quoted for other turbine developments, depending on operating conditions, are between £800 and £2000 per megawatt per year, so in the case of the Eden turbine that would mean between £1600 and £4000 per year going to the local community. This seems pretty stingy to us, and it would be our intention to contribute a considerably greater sum to a Community Fund, to be administered by the local community for the common good.

Wind Turbine Community Benefits

Letter from Tim Smit to our local community

What sort of rewards?

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