Pen y Cymoedd

Pen y Cymoedd ("Head of the Valleys") is a £365m wind farm development currently under construction, located between Neath and Aberdare in south Wales.

The company has signed a lease agreement with Vattenfall of Sweden, and its UK subsidiary Vattenfall United Kingdom (formerly Nuon Renewables), to develop what would be the United Kingdom's highest altitude wind farm, on a site owned by the Forestry Commission Wales,.^[1] The project would see the installation of 76 turbines that are planned to operate for 25 years, and to generate up to 256 MW, an amount enough to power up to 206,000 homes. The turbine manufacturer is Siemens Wind Power.

During the planning process, Nuon agreed to contribute about £1.85m annually to a community fund and to invest £3m in a habitat restoration scheme, and the following parties contributed to the debate:^[2]

• Glyncorrwg Action Group: the wind farm will look down on the village of Glyncorrwg in the Afan Valley. Residents of the village campaigned against the development, which they claim would destroy the character of the landscape.
• Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales: objected on the grounds of its potential impact on a sensitive peat habitat.
• Neath Port Talbot Council: the planning committee decided not to object to the scheme in January 2012, after councillors carried out a site visit, although they set a number of conditions.

The project gained final planning permission in May 2012, The final turbine ( 76th turbine) of Pen y Cymoedd was installed on March 2 , 2017. The wind farm is now fully operational as of May 2017 . .^[3]

The first 3.0MW Siemens 101m turbine was fully completed on April 8, 2016 .^[4]

References

External links

• Nuon Renewables website on Pen y Cymoedd
• Vattenfall's website on Pen y Cymoedd
• Wind Energy Project Pen y Cymoedd (SSA F) @ Forestry Commission