Congresbury and Puxton

A public workshop was held on 23rd January, capturing local people's views on whether the community could get more of its energy from renewable sources. Support was expressed for the possible development of wind turbines and solar farms within the area.

The views of workshop participants are summarised in a map and survey on the next few pages. Please add your thoughts and comments to the map and in the survey questions. 

This online consultation will be open until Monday 11th April at 17:00. The comments made in the consultation will influence North Somerset Council's renewable energy policy development.

The comments made in the workshop were high level suggestions of what might be acceptable. The Council will carry out further work to ensure that what is suggested would be feasible / acceptable. This includes considering the impact on the landscape, noise impacts, disruption from construction traffic, and wildlife protection. 

There also will be further opportunities to comment on the Council's emerging planning policies when they are drafted.

You can find out more about different types of renewable energy and what they look like on our information page here.

Workshop participants suggested the installation of medium size (1 megawatt) wind turbines, up 80 - 100 metres tall. This would be in the location shown on this map (this will open in a new tab), by the M5, to the north west of West Hewish. 

If found to be feasible, workshop participants supported the installation of up to 15 turbines of this scale in this approximate area. Each turbine would provide power for about 550 homes per year, or 8,250 in total. Note for reference, Congresbury and Puxton contain 1,600 homes.

Check what the map looked like here - this will open in a new tab.

Check our guide to wind turbine size here - this will open in a new tab.

Community ownership

Renewable energy projects range from 100% community owned projects to partially community owned projects to fully private enterprises, albeit still offering some community benefits. 

Private developments contribute a proportion of their profits into funds that benefit the local community, but community owned renewable energy projects return all their profits to the community.

A pre-condition for the group’s support was that the turbines should be community owned, with profits being returned to the community.

Workshop participants also expressed support for the development of ground based solar panels and community scale battery storage in the location shown on this map (this will open in a new tab) by the M5, to the north west of West Hewish, if it were found to be feasible.

Large community scale batteries can store renewable electricity for periods when demand is higher and increase the proportion of locally generated renewable electricity able to be used in the local area. 

You can find out what battery storage and ground based solar panels look like on our guide here- this will open in a new tab.

Check what the map looked like here - this will open in a new tab. 

Solar farm expansion

Participants supported the significant expansion of the four existing ground based solar farms within the two parishes (which currently generate 29 megawatts of electricity, equivalent of powering 8060 houses) with the potential to approximately treble their size.

Increasing the size of these ground based solar farms would mean about a further 70 megawatts (equivalent of powering 26,860 houses) of electricity could be generated.

Check what the map looked like here and where the existing solar farms are - this will open in a new tab.

Participants supported the possible development of an Anaerobic digestor (500 kilowatt) to generate renewable electricity, providing feedstock such as animal manure could be found. A sample image of what an anaerobic digestor looks like is below.

Anaerobic digestion works when organic matter (for example animal manure and food waste) is broken down in the absence of oxygen, producing methane which is then burnt to produce heat and/or electricity.

No location was discussed for this.

Photo credit: Vortexrealm via WikiCommons

The existing solar farms in in the area already generate roughly twice as much electricity from renewable sources than is used by households within Congresbury and Puxton. 

The additional renewable energy (wind and solar) suggested in the workshop would result in Congresbury and Puxton generating approximately 8 times more electricity than is used locally from renewable sources.

Conditions of support

The map below gives you the opportunity to add any further comments about the renewable energy suggested in the workshop. 

You can click 'have your say' and drop a pin on the map to share your thoughts. Please note that when you click 'have your say' the map will open in a new tab for you to complete. Please keep in mind that all map comments are public, but anonymous, so none of your personal data is shared.

After you have commented on the map, you can close the window and return to this page. Then click 'next' at the bottom of the page to complete the survey.

Thank you for completing this survey. 

You can find a more detailed summary what happened in the workshop here. This also includes information on participants' view on renewable heat, energy saving and sustainable transport (electric vehicles and e-bikes).

Please click the next button below to go submit your response. It's important that you do this to record your answers.

Commonplace will also ask a few questions on the next page, which help us understand who has responded to the consultation and therefore who the views represent. If any group in the community is under-represented, we can do further outreach to ensure they are heard. None of the information you provide is linked to your survey responses.