THE firm behind a proposal to site a wind farm in West Devon says a majority of residents of Bow, North Tawton and Spreyton appear to have given a qualified welcome to the creation of a wind farm on nearby land.
More than 100 local people attended a day-long exhibition put on at Bow Parish Hall last month by Renewable Energy Systems Ltd (RES), the company behind the proposal, and the Devon Association for Renewable Energy (DARE), a Devon County Council project with offices at The Square, North Tawton.
Many completed a questionnaire to record their views on a range of questions about renewable energy. RES says 78% of respondents said they supported wind farms in Devon, while 63% thought the location at Den Brook was acceptable, with 61% saying they did not think the development would harm the landscape, or might even have a positive effect.
Just under a fifth of people expressed themselves as being opposed to wind farms in Devon, and 22% thought the choice of location was wrong, while two respondents wanted all windmills put inside Dartmoor National Park ?because nobody lives there?.
While still at early stages in the development process, the company estimates that the site has the capacity for a 23 MW wind farm. This could mean building ten 2.3 MW turbines, each with a 60m tower and a 41m blade, or 19 1.3 MW turbines each with a 49m tower and a 39m blade, situated on farmland surrounding the railway line south east of North Tawton.
RES say a project of this size would provide clean, non-polluting electricity, equivalent to the annual needs of 12,900 homes.
Rachel Ruffle, project manager with RES, said: ?So far we have only received permission to put up a mast to measure the wind resource on the proposed site for 12 months. We shall be consulting local people in the meanwhile and listening carefully to their concerns.?