South Wales Evening Post - 8 December 2008
QUESTIONS are being asked over thousands of pounds worth of wind turbine cash that was promised for Swansea.
The 140ft turbine in Swansea Docks was hailed as the centrepiece of a community wind power project in the city, generating thousands of pounds for local energy-efficiency schemes.
But the Post has been unable to find out whether any money is being ploughed back into the community or to speak to the company behind the scheme.
Val Lloyd, AM for Swansea East, has also contacted the wind turbine developer, Swansea Bay Energy Partnership Ltd (SBEP).
She said: "I have been trying to find out whether any community energy projects in Swansea and particularly, Swansea East, will benefit from funding coming from the profit made from operating the turbine.
"I have repeatedly made contact with the Swansea Bay Energy Partnership, but have not received any answers."
In 2001 SBEP, then known as Swansea Energy Agency, was handed £70,000 of public money by the Energy Savings Trust to help pay for the turbine.
Finance Wales, which is part-funded by the Assembly Government, also offered financial support.
The turbine began generating electricity just over two years ago.
The plan was for Associated British Ports, which owns Swansea docks, to buy the electricity, and for SBEP to plough the majority of that money back into local energy-saving programmes.
SBEP director Iestyn Morgan submitted a letter with the original application to Swansea Council in May, 2002. It said: "A very important element of this project is that surplus funding generated from the wind turbine would be used to establish an energy fund for investment into local sustainable energy projects." He said the turbine should generate £26,000-worth of electricity every year.
An Energy Savings Trust report of August 2002 said about the scheme: "
"It is estimated that in excess of £400,000 will be made available to the energy fund over the 20-year life of the turbine."
The following month, Mr Morgan told Swansea University that the turbine should produce enough electricity for 160 homes.
A spokesman for the Energy Savings Trust said: "Swansea Energy Agency received an overall grant of £70,000 under the Innovation Programme in November 2001."
But he said there wasn't a condition saying that profits must be ploughed back into the local community.
The wind turbine scheme was first approved by Swansea Council in September 2002. A second application, for a more suitable site at Swansea docks, was submitted the following month and approved in April, 2004.
A spokesman for Swansea Council said: "The supporting letter with both applications referred to the potential for income generated to be to be recycled into local energy projects.
"A planning condition could not, however, be used to require this, as it would not have been necessary or reasonable. Whether the applicants have made such arrangements would therefore be a matter for them."
The Post has tried a number of times to contact Mr Morgan, of SPEB, without success.
A spokesman for Associated British Ports said: "The wind turbine operated by the Swansea Bay Energy Partnership supplies power to the port of Swansea. ABP has purchased electricity from the turbine since it was first commissioned."
