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Scout Moor Wind Farm is the second largest onshore wind farm in England. The wind farm, which was built for Peel Wind Power Ltd, produces electricity from 26 Nordex N80 wind turbines. It has a total nameplate capacity of 65 MW of electricity, providing 154,000 MW·h per year;〔average output 17.6 MWe, a capacity factor of 27%〕 enough to serve the average needs of 40,000 homes. The site occupies of open moorland between Edenfield, Rawtenstall and Rochdale,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Lancashire County Council External Overview and Scrutiny Committee Minutes (Word Document) )〕 and is split between the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale in northern Greater Manchester and the Borough of Rossendale in south-eastern Lancashire. The turbines are visible from as far away as south Manchester, away. A protest group was formed to resist the proposed construction, and attracted support from the botanist and environmental campaigner David Bellamy. Despite the opposition, planning permission was granted in 2005 and construction began in 2007. Although work on the project was hampered by harsh weather, difficult terrain, and previous mining activity, the wind farm was officially opened on 25 September 2008 after "years of controversy",〔 at a cost of £50 million. In 2012 Peel Energy sold its 50% share in the facility to Munich Re's asset management division MEAG. The other 50% holding was also purchased by MEAG from HgCapital Renewable Power Partners. == Geography == Scout Moor is an upland moor of peat bog and heather in the South Pennines,〔 reaching a maximum elevation of at its peak, Top of Leach.〔 The underlying geology – a mixture of hard rock and soft shales – broadly belongs to the Lower Coal Measures. The rock and shales weather at different rates, giving the area a landscape of "steep escarpments separated by sloping shelves", although the main dome of the moor is flat and rounded.〔Sellers (1991) p. 12.〕 The moorland covers an area of about , of which less than , about 2%, is occupied by the wind farm. Scout Moor Quarry, a open-pit mine in Edenfield, is used for the extraction of gritstone and sandstone, and formerly had its own railway line. The eastern fringe of Scout Moor Wind Farm extends to Hail Storm Hill (also known as Cowpe Moss), one of the 180 Marilyns of England.〔 The presence of coal under Scout Moor led to extensive and unrecorded shallow coal mining in the area during the 18th and 19th centuries. Adits, shafts and coal seams from that period mark the landscape.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Scout Moor Wind Farm」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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