npower renewables will shortly be submitting a planning application for a wind farm on land at Mynydd Pwllyrhebog, north of Glynogwr and south of Clydach Vale. The proposed Fforch Nest Wind Farm site is situated on rough upland grazing land and straddles the boundary between the County Borough Council areas of Rhondda Cynon Taff and Bridgend.

npower renewables was previously developing a larger site in the local area, known as 'Pant-y-wal', however, following comments made to us by local people at our public exhibitions in December 2004, and as a result of an internal review of the scheme, we have decided to develop a smaller wind power project which would have a reduced impact on the surrounding area. This new project is called "Fforch Nest Wind Farm".

The new wind farm is on a smaller site with fewer turbines - 13 instead of the 20 previously proposed. Each wind turbine would have a capacity of up to 3 megawatts (MW), combining to form a wind farm with an anticipated maximum installed capacity of 39MW. The clean electricity produced by the wind farm is expected to be sufficient to meet the annual average electricity needs of up to 20,100 homes¹; that's over one-third of the homes in the Bridgend local authority area or more than one-fifth of the homes in the Rhondda Cynon Taff local authority area².

The location of the Fforch Nest Wind Farm site is ideal for designing a powerful, modern and environmentally-friendly wind farm, because:

• Strong and persistent winds mean the wind farm would be capable of producing large amounts of clean, green electricity.
• The site is well spaced from surrounding homes and its location allows us to design a wind farm with minimal visual influence on nearby towns and villages.
• The site does not have any national designations for wildlife or landscape.
• The site is within one of the strategic areas identified by the Welsh Assembly Government in TAN 8 as being suitable for the development of wind farms.

Bethan Thomas, npower renewables' project manager for the Fforch Nest scheme said, "We are pleased to be submitting planning applications for the Fforch Nest Wind Farm to both Bridgend and Rhondda Cynon Taff Local Planning Authorities. We have prepared a very thorough planning application, which is the culmination of many months of work by the staff at npower renewables, and numerous specialist independent consultants.

"We hope local people will be interested in finding out more about our Fforch Nest project. We have taken on board the comments made by local residents at our exhibitions in 2004 and feel that our new proposal is more sympathetic to local concerns, whilst still making a valuable contribution to renewable energy targets. We are very keen to get local residents involved and are proposing some innovative measures to facilitate good communication between ourselves and local people. We look forward to presenting our new project to local people at the forthcoming exhibitions in September, details of which are posted on our website and are being advertised locally."

npower renewables is aware that another wind farm development company is working on another project in the area, and is using the Pant-y-wal name. This is, however, an entirely new project being progressed by a different developer.

Notes:

1. Based on a 39 MW wind farm and assuming a 27.7% capacity factor, the wind farm would produce 94,634.28 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity per year. Using an average household electricity usage figure of 4,700 kWh per year, the wind farm would supply 94,634.28/4,700 = 20,135 homes. Household consumption figure of 4,700 kWh calculated by dividing electricity consumption for the year 2003 by the number of households counted in the 2001 National Census.
2. Based on 20,100 homes as a percentage of the number of households estimated to exist in the Bridgend and Rhondda Cynon Taff Local Authority areas in 2003 (53,600 and 94,600 households respectively), as derived from the Office of National Statistics mid year population estimates published 6th January 2005.

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