Pylons planned for Shropshire countryside
Wednesday 16th March 2011, 4:14PM GMT.
New power pylons could march across the Shropshire countryside as part of plans by the National Grid to connect to the new windfarms being built in Mid Wales.
The National Grid said the 400,000 volt transmission connection would link with the major electricity line between Oswestry and Shrewsbury.
Consultation meetings with communities along the proposed line of the pylons begin next week to explain more about the project which is due to be completed by 2015.
A route has not yet been chosen for the line and the National Grid has stressed no decision has been made about whether it would go under or overground.
Mid Wales has been chosen as a preferred site for new wind farms in Britain.
National Grid project manager Peter Bryant said: “The project is large and complex and involves a number of companies, each responsible for delivering different parts.”
Mr Bryant said the work to connect these to the national electricity grid needed a new 132,000 volt connections to take the power generated by wind farms to the new substation; a new high voltage substation to be built in Powys to act as collection point for the power generated and a new 400,000 volt link from the substation to the existing national electricity network
He said: “The connection could be a new overhead power line, underground cables or a combination of the two. To start the process of deciding what route the connection will take, National Grid has carried out a study to find potential route corridors through Wales and England. From these, a preferred route corridor will be chosen.
‘We appreciate this is a significant development and we are committed to listening to the views of local people before we make any decisions about the location of the substation or the route corridor.”
The first drop-in meeting will be at the Eastern Oswestry Community Centre, on March 24 from 2pm to 8pm followed by meetings at Alberbury Village Hall, on April 1, Baschurch Village Hall on April 2 and West Felton Village Hall on April 4.
Meetings will be held later in April and in May in Pontesbury and Mid Wales.
By Sue Austin
UK News
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we need more wind power in the uk just to keep the lights on, let alone for jobs and the environmental benefit, so im all in favour of this personally
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Wind energy is not good enough and would not provide enough energy.
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better than no electicity like those poor folk in japan i guess we’re lucky really
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So, potentially, yet another adverse effect on the countryside as a result of this incomprehensible fascination with windmills. This in addition to despoiling the countryside, frightening horses, chopping up birds, spontaneously combusting, driving down property prices, maddening those who live nearby with their subsonic humming, driving up electricity prices, promoting rentseeking, making rich landowners richer (and everyone else poorer), ruining views, requiring rare earth minerals which cause enormous environmental damage, destroying 3.7 real jobs for every fake “green” job they “create”, blighting neighbourhoods, and killing off tourism.
Even a long time member of Greenpeace, Dr Patrick Albert Moore has recently stated How can windmills be green when they require five times as much steel and concrete per unit of power produced compared to nuclear plants and when they occupy vast areas of land?
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These disadvantages probably don’t sound that awful to someone living in north-east Japan.
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I’m interested in your reasons for opposing windmills, winja.
In an earlier discussion you were very supportive of open-cast coal mining, which -I think- most people would say has a much more detrimental effect on the countryside, wildlife and house prices.
Fascination with windmills may be ‘incomprehensible’ to you.
However, for most people there is NOTHING incomprehensible about taking climate change seriously, cutting atmospheric carbon and pushing for an expansion of green manufacturing and green jobs.
As for Patrick Moore, he left Greenpeace years ago and earns his keep today as a public relations consultant for the nuclear as well as other industries.
By the way, which is easier and cheaper to decommission; a windfarm or a nuclear power station?
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fine by me, but i would prefer them underground or along existing corridors of development e.g a49 / a5, they cant make these major roads any uglier can they
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This entire installation will cost many billions of pounds and as i look out of the window the wind in midwales is zero mph so will be producing precisely nothing under these conditions, even in Denmark the home of wind power they have had enough and they have the option of storing the wind power in Norwegian fjords by reverse pumping water for when the wind does not blow. The worst eyesore will be the 400kv link from Cefn coch or Abermule northward, the obvious route would be to the east of long mountain (purple route south)but its up to locals to push for this route or face the consequences of having it over the more populated larger villages of N powys and Nw shropshire
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Here is a 400kv route map link to see if your house is blighted.
http://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Electricity/MajorProjects/MidWalesConnection/Documents/
Under maps the top pdf shows the 400kv options.
The obvious route would be purple south to the east of long mountain for obvious reasons being more direct shorter compliant with the holford rules and less disruptive to population centres.
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Please stop bringing Japan into this. Its an awful tragedy of course, but it has no place in a discussion about some electricity pylons here in Shropshire. In my point of view, this is a good thing, but I really do think they should be placed underground as its safer and creates less of an impact despite the extra cost.
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Dont be fooled that by placing a 400kv system underground you avoid its effects – visually yes, but the localised ground field within the area can in fact be enhanced.
I see some of the route options place this system almost directly over the recently expanded Four Crosses primary school – Unbelievable !
Have a look on a dark night what a 400kv system does to a nearby tree in leaf- the leaves scintillate at around 20 times a second and they show a blue coronal discharge at the tips !!
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Burying a 400kv circuit is not far safer. It is a potential landmine. Never mind the exceptionally high induced ground currents.
Should a cable fault occur “I squared R” losses (ohms law) dictate a rapid dissipation of energy in a confined space: result EXPLOSION
Have seen it with 11kv cables, so with 400kv however unlikely, would be spectacular and deadly to anyone within the vicinity.
A good thing ? Sure if you don’t live there.
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Yes, we need electricity.
Yes, we need to transmit from the generating source to the consumer.
But we don’t need to destroy our countryside or peoples’ lives.
Imagine for one moment the power line going over or near your own house, your childrens’ school or workplace.
Burying the cable under or near trunk roads is a real option.
It maybe expensive but the science supports this.
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Shouldn’t we generate energy closer to where it is consumed to avoid the waste and lost heat involved in the centralised system we currently have?
A Decentralized Energy system would negate the need for so many pylons, wouldn’t it?
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