Wind Farm

[Beemer]

Most people at the airport will have seen the wind farm being built on Frodsham marshes so I thought I would take a few photos of it.

This is the view from the GA road.
WF IMG_9964 by Beemer328i, on Flickr

The others were taken from Frodsham Hill and down on the marshes.
WF IMG_9763 by Beemer328i, on Flickr

WF IMG_9765a by Beemer328i, on Flickr

WF IMG_9770 by Beemer328i, on Flickr

WF IMG_9775a by Beemer328i, on Flickr

WF IMG_9781 by Beemer328i, on Flickr

WF IMG_9787 by Beemer328i, on Flickr

WF IMG_9788 by Beemer328i, on Flickr

Regards Beemer.

[Beemer]

The new wind Farm is being created on Frodsham Marshes.
The wind farm will consist of 19 turbines, each 125m high supplied by Nordex.
The total installed capacity of the wind farm will be more than 50MW, making it one of England’s largest onshore generating stations, and the largest in the Cheshire region.
Peel Energy are the company behind the project and Peel are owners of nearby Manchester Ship Canal

Regards Beemer.

[radiostationx]

Spotted 2 heavy low loaders carrying 2 blades @ M57 switch island this morning with Cheshire police providing the escort. Must have come in to seaforth and ferried by road direct to site.
Looks from the photos that the yellow crane looks like a leibherr ltm-1750 more than likely ainscoughs.extension lattice jib for extra reach and capability to mount "fan" gearbox.
Some seriously big counter balance weights on there too.
The leibherrs are fantastic machines, I know ainscoughs bought £11 million worth of kit in recent times.
The ltm1750 is very big but not as big as the mighty ltm-11200 9.1
You need a fleet of around twenty 40 ton artikks to carry all the add ons for the extension jib alone which can go to over 180mtrs high. At minimum jib and reach this baby can lift 1200 tonnes.
A serious bit of kit !
I Quite like a bit of crane spotting..especially some big stuff from ainscoughs or really big from mammoet lifing company,Holland who visit stanlow now and again.

[Biggles]

I have concluded there is a moron who allows planning permission hidden somewhere. These at Frodsham and right in front of my home in Burbo Bank area another 52 are being added to the already massive number in place.
From.an employee at the Deeside Power Station the whole lot are a total massive waste of money.They tell me the land turbines are even more inefficient than those at sea. A fact I was pretty sure of anyway seeing how often the blades turn. Too higher wind they dont turn, too little they again fail, they malfunction it appears on a regular basis observing the high level of visits by workers. Plus apparently Dong Energy have a clause in the ops manual paying them more the less the turbines work.
The view from my home is now diminishing in favour of hundreds of turbines.

[eye2eye5]

I don't know what the efficiency of the turbines may be, Biggles, but I must say that my quality of life has been greatly improved by the vast reduction in usage of Fiddlers Ferry power station. Instead of suffering from constant man made clouds obscuring the sun, I am now enjoying a healthy tan! I also think that Frodsham marshes are ideal for this type of development. I just wish we could get a Mersey barrage.......

[Beemer]

You are correct in what you eye2eye5. I live south of the Mersey opposite Fiddlers Ferry and some days we never see the blue sky if the wind is blowing to the south. Regards Beemer.

[Deleted]

Wow! That's brought back memories. I recalled taking my daughter there when she was little. She was really impressed. One of the first things she said was 'Look Dad, a factory with it's very own cloud'.

[Deleted]

When I bought a house in Penketh in 1967, we were told that the lifespan of Fiddler's Ferry would be about 25 years. It was still being built at the time, and we used to watch the progress from the nearby pub, until the new landlord decided he wouldn't serve pints and we went elsewhere

What never ceases to amaze me is that the UK is one of the few countries which have such huge cooling towers. Many countries, (Romania in particular) use the hot water to circulate around greenhouses in the winter and supply industrial premises which require it all year round.

[andyh]

Aug 2, 2016 20:30:37 GMT 1 Biggles said:

I have concluded there is a moron who allows planning permission hidden somewhere. These at Frodsham and right in front of my home in Burbo Bank area another 52 are being added to the already massive number in place.
From.an employee at the Deeside Power Station the whole lot are a total massive waste of money.They tell me the land turbines are even more inefficient than those at sea. A fact I was pretty sure of anyway seeing how often the blades turn. Too higher wind they dont turn, too little they again fail, they malfunction it appears on a regular basis observing the high level of visits by workers. Plus apparently Dong Energy have a clause in the ops manual paying them more the less the turbines work.
The view from my home is now diminishing in favour of hundreds of turbines.

Have you taken to living on a yacht Biggles? Those wind farms are 4.5 miles off the coast! I also think you may need to clean your binoculars and count the number of turbines again as the Burbo Bank scheme (including extension is only 57 turbines in total - 25 plus 32 in the extension), not exactly "hundreds"! As I type, wind power is supplying 12.35% of the electricity being used by the National Grid (National Grid Status). It will be critical for future economic growth to ensure we have a secure energy supply (which means less reliance on oil and gas) and wind has to be part of that picture.

[Biggles]

AndyH

Not sure where you reside but I actually live about 200 yards or so from the promenade opposite Burbo Bank, the 4.5 miles you mention is fine until they appear in your front window view your are also correct that the current 25 towers will be increased by a further 32 which are being placed now most bases are already in place. As for NOT HUNDREDS have you counted the number of turbines off the N Wales coast over 150 ? which ARE ALSO IN clear veiw. I have no idea about figures of electricity being produced other than a large number of people I speak to in the business reckon it is not efficient, as I dont work in the supply of the stuff so have to listen to people who actually do and not except figures produced usually by the people involved in producing the wind farms, funnily enough not Britsh companies. Having read about the latest batch of turbines being placed it seems these are much larger than the current Burbo 25 wont that be a nice sight raler than the Liver Buildings they have hinted. So I am sorry 4.5 miles means nothing if you live looking at them. What happend to using wave power ? Can I suggest a visit to the Wallasey promenade and look for yourself. I also visit Frodsham on a regular basis and this wind farm was not welcome by a huge number of locals.

[andyh]

I guess they are a matter of personal taste. Personally I don't see the problem with them. The turbines going up at Frodsham Marshes are half the distance to me that Burbo Bank is to you and without the benefit of a generally murky grey-white background for them to merge into. As for efficiency, that point is open to debate, though as the technology improves - and turbine sizes increase - wind is getting more cost effective. Research in 2014 did show that wind turbines were the cheapest method of generating electricity (£ / megawatt hour) at roughly 60% of the cost of nuclear or coal / gas power stations. It's true that the turbines don't operate all of the time, but then they aren't designed to - neither are most conventional power stations.

I agree with you on the need to develop more energy from wave / tidal. The problem is they are costly systems to develop and construct and they take an awfully long time to pay back that investment.

[nickjaxe]

Seem to remember reading that these giant wind turbines can play havoc with ATC radar returns...huge array under construction on Frodsham marsh...wonder if its going to be a problem for Liverpool getting returns from the south and south east.

Nick.

[andyh]

Nick, my understanding is that whilst the larger turbines can affect radar, any technical issues at Liverpool had to be addressed as part of the planning process and an appropriate 'fix' agreed with the airport.