Earls Hall Wind Farm is an 11.5 MW wind farm near Clacton-on-Sea in Essex.  New Energy Hub Director Vicky Portwain was responsible for identifying the site, negotiating the option/ lease for the land and submitting the EIA and planning application.  The site was developed by RWE but then sold and constructed by Renerco.  The wind farm is now owned and operated by Greencoat (since 2013).

At the pre-planning and planning stages, Friends of the Earth were fully involved in the project and helped raise over 1000 letters of support, compared with around 150 letters of objection.  

Project Factfile:

• Number of turbines: 5
• Turbine Manufacturer and Model: Repower MM92
• Turbine Capacity: 2.05MW
• Site Megawatt Capacity: 10MW
• Height and Rotor Diameter: 125m / 92m
• Grid Connection: 33kV substation (on site)
• Date of planning application: 2007
• Date of first generation: 2013
• Key Challenges: site access, impacts on local residential amenity, impacts on local airfield