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STOP CALDERDALE ENERGY PARK

Top Withens | Andrew Fowler

Stronger Together to Stop Calderdale Windfarm was formed in 2024 as a coalition group to bring South Pennines-based campaigners together to prevent the construction of a huge wind farm on Walshaw Moor between Top Withens (aka Wuthering Heights), Pecket Well and Widdop. The developers have now changed the name of the wind farm to Calderdale Energy Park.

Wind farms are an important and necessary part of the transition to green energy. But they must be in the right place, and highly protected, carbon storing peatland is NOT the right place.

There’s an excellent study by Exeter University and Friends of the Earth which identifies potential wind farm sites which are not on protected peatland.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CALDERDALE ENERGY PARK, AKA CALDERDALE WIND FARM

First of all, it’s not a park and it’s not a farm. It’s a massive industrial complex which will destroy one of the country’s most protected moors. The site on Walshaw Moor is 2352ha/9 square miles of peatland, blanket bog and acid grassland.

Even after so-called public consultations from the developers, Calderdale Energy Park (CEP) we can only offer educated guesses for some of what follows.

At the moment – and we can’t be certain this is what the planning application will end up with – CEP are proposing to put 41 turbines, each 200m high and with a rotor diameter of about 170m on Walshaw Moor.

CEP have now issued their new Scoping Report – the next stage in the planning process – which you can read here: SCOPING REPORT
Stronger Together are formulating their response to this and will post it here before the deadline of 29 September.

All these turbines will be lit at night.

There will be at least one Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) capable of storing at least 100MW hours and an electricity sub-station.

There will be aggregate-surfaced tracks snaking across the moor to each turbine. These will be at least 6m wide and will have ditches on either side. Cable trenches will connect each turbine to the substation. Each of the 41 turbines will have a massive concrete foundation and a concrete crane pad.

The entrance to the site will either be off the A6033 Oxenhope-Hebden Bridge road, or off Lancashire Moor Road/Two Laws Road between Laneshawbridge and Watersheddles reservoir.

Introduction by Worth Valley Against Calderdale Windfarm

Special Protection Area (SPA)

Walshaw Moor is at the centre of the South Pennines Moors SPA Phase 2 designated because of its large numbers of protected breeding birds such as Curlew, Lapwing, and Skylark, and for important numbers of Golden Plover and Merlin.

Special Area of Conservation (SAC)

Walshaw Moor is designated as a Special Area of Conservation, mainly as a peatland. Peat stores more carbon than the rest of the world’s vegetation put together. Natural England and the Walshaw Moor Estate’s 2018-2042 agreement to increase the extent and quality of active bog.

Planning and decision making

In April 2025, Calderdale Wind Farm rebranded itself as Calderdale Energy Park (CEP) and became one of the first wind farms in England to apply for a Development Consent Order (DCO) using the new Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects planning process.

How will CEP be built?

The aggregate for the concrete must be imported from outside West Yorkshire. All concrete is strongly alkaline and the foundation must be protected by a membrane. This would eventually fail as the acid peat would react with the steel and concrete. The blanket bog will be poisoned by iron sulphate, sold as moss killer in garden centres.

By Walshaw Turbines Research Group

How will CEP be built?

Access option A to CEP

The most likely turbine for CEP is the Vestas 162-7.2 MW. The rotor diameter is 162 metres and the blades are 80-metres long. The only similar blade delivery in the UK and Ireland is by Collett & Sons of Halifax to Cushaling wind farm in Kildare, Ireland for nine Vestas 162-6.2 MW turbines. Collett is an innovative transport company with an immensely skilled work force.

By Walshaw Turbines Research Group

Access Option A to CEP

Lapwings on Walshaw Moor | Kate Haselgrave 2025

FIND OUT MORE

8 Campaign Groups

Standing together with the support of national bodies to protect Walshaw Moor

About Us

Read All About It

Informative and factual, we look at the landscape, its history and the negative impact a wind farm will have on this heavily protected site.

Gallery & Events

Press Coverage

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FELLOW CAMPAIGN GROUPS' WEBSITES

Ban the Burn have been fighting to save Walshaw Moor since 2023 and their information about peat, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill and the planning process is well worth taking a look at. Stop Calderdale Wind Farm’s website also contains lots of relevant information, just follow the links via the buttons below.

Visit Ban The Burn

Stop Calderdale Wind Farm

The image above envisions how the site will appear from Cock Hill on Oxenhope Moor.

WHAT WILL IT LOOK LIKE?

This video, and the image above, were created by a globally-renowned expert in envisioning for the wind farm industry, using the exact coordinates and dimensions of the turbines. Please note that it was made using the ORIGINAL site layout of 65 turbines. The number of turbines proposed is now 41 – but this gives an idea of scale. All the turbines will be lit at night.

This video envisions the site from the Pack Horse Inn at Hebden Bridge

ZONE OF THEORETICAL VISIBILITY. This is what the developer supplied in their scoping report of September 2023. There will now be 41 turbines rather than 65 but this gives an idea of how far away the wind farm will be visible from.

STOP CALDERDALE ENERGY PARK

How You Can Help

GETTING INVOLVED

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Speak Out

Share your thoughts with your communities at home and online. Attend meetings.

Contact your MP.

Contact a member of the House of Lords.

Write to the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, (currently Ed Miliband), Secretary.State@energysecurity.gov.uk and tell them that there is no need to build wind farms on protected peatland.

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Stronger Together

You are welcome to join our campaign group and add your voice and vote to the many – The Calderdale Windfarm Action Group is the main Facebook group representing all of the eight campaign groups of Stronger Together to Stop Calderdale Windfarm.
We’d love to have you on board with us.