THE EARLY stages of a potential scheme for a wind turbine nearly 250 foot high next to one of the main south Pembrokeshire roads to Tenby have been received after a previous scheme was refused earlier this year.
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park has listed an observation status for a proposal for a wind turbine up to 76 metres high at Summerton Farm, Sageston.
Back in February, Pembrokeshire County Council planners, at their monthly committee meeting, refused an application by Tim French of CWE DS Limited to replace a current 60.5m high turbine with one up to 90 metres, or just under 300 foot, high on land north of Summerton Farm, near the B4318 road from Sageston to Tenby.
That application, some 1.5km east of Sageston and 1.6km northwest of St Florence, had been recommended for refusal, with an objection to the scheme by the council’s landscape officer recorded in an accompanying report.
The application was recommended for refusal on the grounds its height and scale would have a detrimental impact on the visual amenity of the locality, with the additional clause of failing to comply with supplementary guidance.
Agent Neo Environmental Ltd, in a supporting statement for that scheme, said: “Whilst there is no change in the rated output capacity compared to the existing turbine, energy production on-site would be greater due to the following factors: improved reliability of newer turbine technology; increased wind speeds at higher elevations; improved wind to energy conversion efficiency of newer turbine technology; and increased swept area of wind capture.”
Members heard the council’s landscape officer has disputed the applicant’s Landscape Visual Impact Assessment view the change in visual impact “for a very large turbine in a rural landscape” would be ‘slight’.
A formal application for the 76-metre turbine has not yet been published.
