If you’re ever driving between junctions 20 and 21 on the south bound side of the M1, you’ll most likely spot the four most amusingly named wind turbines in England.
Installed Capacity
8.2MW
No. of turbines
4
Turbine type
Senvion MM92
Hub height
80m
Blade length
45.2m
Expected P50 energy yield
25.1GWh
Annual house-hold power equivalent
6,518 homes*
Before it opened in November 2011, Low Spinney Wind Farm’s turbines were named by school children from Gilmorton & Dunton Bassett primary schools. The imaginative youngsters called their new 80m neighbours Spinner, Gilly, Whizzy and Wurzel and they’ve been spinning happily since the kids cut the ribbon to open the site, which sits near the villages of Gilmorton (pop. 976), Ashby Magna (294) and Dunton Bassett (795) and is still used for both arable and pastoral farming.
Acquired in May 2012, the 4 turbines are rated at just over 2MW, giving the site an installed capacity of 8.2MW with the ability to generate enough energy to power 6,518 homes*.
Benefiting local communities
Low Spinney’s community fund is managed by the local parish councils at Gilmorton, Ashby Magna and Dunton Basset and has already supported a wide variety of projects including the provision of new playground equipment at Dunton Basset, helping with the installation of an artificial pitch for Dunton & Broughton Rangers Amateur Football Club and providing tents and other camping equipment for Leire & Dunton Scouts.
Any questions relating to this wind farm should be directed to: windfarms@ventientenergy.com
*Based on the Installed Capacity x Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) "all wind" load factor expressed as a fraction of 1^ x number of hours in a year (8,760 hours) / Average Annual Domestic Electricity Consumption (MWh)^^
^BEIS's long-term average load factor for "all wind" (31.84%) expressed as a fraction of 1 (0.3184). Source for capacity factors is Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics (DUKES) published annually by BEIS.
^^Annual GB Average Domestic Consumption Values from BEIS (3,509kWh).
