Community Support for Wind Power

Swaffham is a market town in Norfolk and features two wind turbines which have a lot of local support.

Over 60,000 locals and visitors have climbed the 300-step spiral staircase inside the Swaffham 1 turbine to reach the unique 65m high public viewing platform. There has been similar enthusiasm for Swaffham 2 in Sporle Road, Swaffham. Together the two turbines generate enough electricity to supply 75% of Swaffham’s total domestic electricity requirements.

Swaffham I, the UK's first multi-megawatt wind turbine and one of a new generation of direct drive, variable speed wind turbines, was installed at the Ecotech Centre in Swaffham, Norfolk in October 1999. It produces enough electricity for over 1,000 people - over a third of the population of Swaffham.

Construction of Swaffham's second wind turbine was completed in July 2003. Standing 85m high, it was the UK's tallest onshore wind turbine and was built at the request of local residents.

There was overwhelming local support when the installation of Swaffham 1 was mooted back in 1999 by Ecotricity. One person who was not in favour was Greg Britton, then Area Planning Officer of Breckland District Council, who was converted to wind energy once he became aware of the amount of pollution generated by fossil fuels in the production of electricity.

The local community was generally enthusiastic when Ecotricity mailed 100,000 households in Breckland and the surrounding districts asking residents to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to more wind turbines as part of the public consultation on plans for Swaffham 2.  Around 89% of the 9,000 respondents voted ‘Yes’. Only 6.5% said ‘No’ and some 3.6% were either undecided or left their vote blank.

Lessons and thoughts

It is interesting to note that Swaffham 2 received a higher level of support than Swaffham 1 – this indicates that communities can grow to like wind turbines once they have local experience of them.  Good local engagement can increase levels of public support for wind power, leading to further successful developments in nearby areas.