cc: , , date: Sun, 18 May 2003 14:28:36 +0100 from: "Trevor Davies" subject: wind turbines to: Dear Dr Toke, CONFIDENTIAL I am Dean of the School of Environmental Sciences at UEA, and involved in a Community Carbon Reduction Project (CRed) - which is about to be officially launched & is aiming to build a community which will reduce CO2 emissions by 60% by 2025. CRed is partnered by the Norwich City, Norfolk County Council, District Councils, as well as businesses etc. An important objective is to get the "ordinary community" on board - & this is going very well. It is a real-world research experiment & - at the same time - a demonstration and awareness raising project. The research element is identifying, & how to overcome, obstacles to the adoption of low carbon practices. There are close links with the national Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research (headquartered in this School, & which has the brief for identifying sustainable solutions for climate change). The Tyndall Centre is funded by ESRC/NERC/EPSRC/DTI. As part of CRed activity we have been having discussions with a commercial organisation, & have -in principle - agreed the construction of a wind farm at the edge of the City (2 on the campus in District Council territory, and 1 in the City on City-owned ground - 4.5MW in total). If it goes ahead this will represent the first wind farm so close to the edge of a city- & testing the notion that turbines might be more acceptable where there are alreadt built structures. If things go as expected a planning application will be made in the next few weeks. Given CRed, and the fact that all the relevant Councils as well as many others in the community are enthusiastic backers of CRed, & the particular character of UEA (a very strong record in environmental research, especially related to climate change) one might assume that conditions are more favourable for agreement over wind turbines than in many other cases. Yet even ahead of any public discussion, let alone a formal planning application, it is clear that all the underlying factors which you identify in your Project Brief note are at play. I, being a mere physical scientist, have been surprised & fascinated at the same time at the appearance of these factors, & how (as you indicate) they are wrapped round by the words "visual impact". Since we have just started on this possible wind farm venture (altho the "other factors" you identify have immediately kicked-in), & given the local circumstances (CRed, Tyndall Centre, etc), it occurs to us that this might be an excellent real-time case study for your programme. This would be able to provide the element of simultaneous observation, & indeed experimental participation, which would be lacking in the analysis of past cases. If you think this is a sensible idea, it would mean having to move quickly to get the relevant resources in place. Any argument you may wish to make to ESRC might be include an argument along the added value line because of the ESRC's existing substantial involvement in the Tyndall Centre & indeed in the School's Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment- which hosts the ESRC funded programme on environmental decision making. So we do have some considerable local presence which could help support your involvement from Birmingham. I have cc'd this to the STP Office at Sussex. Mike Hulme (Exec Director Tyndall Centre) alerted me to this possibility & so would, I'm sure, support any case to ESRC, as would Kerry Turner (Director of CSERGE). The major commercial organisation we are dealing with are piloting a number of things with us & so, I am sure, would provide the fullest information to this possible study. Best Wishes Trevor Davies _____________________________ Professor Trevor D. Davies Dean School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia Norwich NR4 7TJ Tel +44 (0)1603 592836 Fax +44 (0)1603 593792