Cumbrian wind farm plan rejected

The UK government rejected on Thursday 2nd March 2006, an application to build a large wind farm in Cumbria due to the impact it would have on the landscape.

The UK is relying on expanding wind power to meet its renewable energy targets, however, many of the schemes face fierce local opposition to the wind farms.

This wind farm would have been built on land near the scenic Lake District and it would have produced clean electricity for over 45,000 homes.

The project would have had a capacity of between 67 and 81 megawatts, depending on the size of the turbines used in the scheme.

The UK is looking towards wind power to provide much of its target of generating 10% of the country's power from green sources by 2010. This would be an increase of 6% from what it is currently today.

This year a record number of onshore wind projects are being built totalling 600 megawatts of capacity and it is claimed by the British Wind Energy Association that onshore wind could provide at least 5% of the UK's power by 2010.