Dukes Meadows Windfarm Plan Dismissed as a Hoax
Designs show three turbines situated close to the river
A visualisation of the wind turbines on Dukes Meadows. Picture: chiswickwindfarm.com
July 2, 2023
A web site purporting to be that of a project to set up a wind farm by the River Thames on Chiswick has been dismissed as a hoax.
The chiswickwindfarm.com claims that it has secured funding to build three large wind turbines on Dukes Meadows and that they could be generating power by 2025.
Visualisation show three 2.5 megawatt turbines which, it is claimed could provide sustainable power to 4,000 homes operating at 30% capacity. The site says, “With its elevated position and proximity to exposed conditions by the river, it is an ideal location for harnessing clean and sustainable energy.”
The web site appears to have been published about a week ago with no other announcement being made. Local councillors say they are unaware of the project and no planning application has been made to Hounslow Council.
The Dukes Meadows Trust believes the website is a hoax pointing out that it claims extensive community engagement and support, yet no one locally, including the Trust which built the public facilities and shares management of them with the council, has heard of the project.
Paul Davis, Chair of the Trust said, “The council is committed to working with communities, it is inconceivable that it would have got into talks about this, let alone given the kind of consent that would be needed to secure grants, without speaking to local residents and ourselves.
“The public area of the park is around 15% of the whole, so even if the Meadows was to be used, the small area of public space would be the worst place to site it. If anyone is being approached to invest, they would need to be wary. The claims on the site about community engagement are untrue, which must raise concerns as to the veracity of what else is claimed.
“We are seeking information from the council, but we’re confident that with it investing in a project to put communities at the heart of what it does by improving engagement, it would not be having talks about siting a wind farm at Dukes Meadows without involving the community and the Trust.”
The position of the turbines viewed from the north of Dukes Meadows. Picture: chiswickwindfarm.com
The web site claims to have conducted a survey of local people and that the decision to choose this site “was also influenced by the commitment of the local community to environmental conservation and their eagerness to embrace renewable energy solutions.”
It is stated that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) based at the Bahrain International Investment Park is funding and managing the project with “a combination of grants and investments from multiple global partners in the GCC linked to the renewable energy industry.”
We emailed the web site to asked for further details about the project. A response was received from Mohammed Habib who described himself as Secretary, Joint GCC Climate Council.
He said, “The Joint GCC climate council in Bahrain is funding the project and will be setting up a UK entity soon and we are completely funded. Our conversations have been with the UK Government who have been wonderful as usual.”
The response came from an email address of the project web site rather than the GCC and we have been unable at this stage to independently verify the GCC’s involvement in the project. He has informed us that there will be a full press briefing later this month.
Although the government has recently relaxed regulations on the setting up of windfarms it is believed to be highly unlikely that permission would be granted to build one on Metropolitan Open Land particularly a site at Dukes Meadows which would have protected views.
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