There are few reasons for an Enercon E48 500kW community wind turbine.
Wind
The “wind resource” is very good and suits a larger class 1 wind turbine.
Bankability
We need to get a commercial loan to buy the wind turbine. The bank wants to know the wind turbine and manufacturer are reliable. This makes the bank happy to loan the money and makes the wind turbine “bankable”. The Enercon E48 is a very “bankable” wind turbine. Enercon made the E48 an 800kW machine that could work as a 500kW machine to fill the gap of “bankable” wind turbines around the 500kW size.
Grid Connection
The original idea for a community wind turbine on Cocklaw Hill was to put a wind turbine at the top of the hill and connect into the electricity line that leads up to the TV mast. Our consultants have worked out that the electricity line that leads to the TV mast is not very strong. It could only take electricity from a very small turbine which would not make very much money for the community.
Different parts of the grid network can take different amounts of electricity depending on how far the electricity line is from a “sub-station”. Some parts of the grid can take electricity from a 100kW wind turbine. Other parts of the grid can take electricity from a larger wind turbine. As electricity moves further from a substation it loses its strength. This is called transmission loss.
We have to put our own electricity line in and connect to the grid. The nearby grid is not very strong but should be able to take the electricity from a 500kW wind turbine. The cost of putting an electricity line is very expensive. If we had to connect an 800kW wind turbine to the grid we would have to put more expensive electrical cable into the ground, and make it go further to make up for “transmission losses”.
We still have to check the grid connection and road access as well as other things but, at this stage, the Enercon E48 500kW wind turbine is looking like the best for the community to own.