Delabole wind farm
| Delabole wind farm | |
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 Location of Delabole wind farm in Cornwall
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| Country | England |
| Location | Cornwall |
| Coordinates | 50°37′59″N 4°42′29″W / 50.633°N 4.708°WCoordinates: 50°37′59″N 4°42′29″W / 50.633°N 4.708°W |
| Status | Operating |
| Commission date | 1991 |
| Operator(s) | Good Energy |
| Power generation | |
| Units operational | 4 |
The Delabole wind farm was the first commercial onshore wind farm built in the United Kingdom, in November 1991. This field of wind turbines was initially developed by Windelectric Management Ltd.
Delabole is located in the southwest region of Cornwall, United Kingdom, about two miles west of Camelford. It has the third highest elevation of the villages in Cornwall sitting at 800 feet making it an ideal place for turbines. The farm is pastoral land, one mile away from the village of Delabole and 2.5 miles away from the Celtic Sea. The country itself is the windiest of Europe receiving over 40% of the continent's wind annually.
The farm was first proposed by landowners Peter and Martin Edwards in 1989, and was opened in 1991. They chose to invest in the turbines, instead of a nuclear power plant, in the hope of pushing the UK in a greener direction. It took three months of construction to build the site and less than a month to commission the turbines. In its first year, the Delabole wind farm brought in 100,000 visitors who were able to look around the turbines freely on tourist walks.
In 2001, there was an attempt to attract 150,000 tourists annually to this wind farm by building the Gaia Energy Centre. It was supposed to promote and educate the people of Cornwall about energy conservation and the benefits of renewable energy. Inside they had an auditorium, café and shop, as well as interactive exhibits and a resource library. Most of the funding for the £5 million Gaia Energy Centre came from Europe, with £300,000 grants from Objective One and the South West Regional Development Agency. It closed down just three years after opening since less than a tenth of the projected visitors actually came.
Although the Gaia Energy Centre was unsuccessful, the farm continued to stay in production. Since 2002, the farm has been owned and operated by Good Energy, whose goal is to make the UK 100% renewable by 2050. For its first two decades, it operated ten 400 kW WD34 wind turbines, built by Vestas. In August 2010, these ten turbines were decommissioned to make way for better technology. In February 2011, an £11.8 million rebuilding of the facility was completed, which replaced the original ten with four new Enercon E-70 turbines standing at 98 meters, which are three times larger. The funding came from a £9.6 million loan from the Co-operative bank and £2.2 million equity from Good Energy's own resources. After the rebuilding, the facility has a potential power output of 9.2 megawatts, an increase from the original four megawatt output.
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