The Beginning... early 1990's
Westmill Wind farm started as an idea, about 12 years ago, when I was thinking about making changes to my own life, and particularly to the land I farmed - how could I incorporate some of the values I had into the farm I was running. I started to convert the farm to an organic system and as an ex anti-nuclear power protestor of the late 70's and early 80's I also looked at how we use Energy on the farm and if there was potential for generating energy from the farm. We planted some willow for biomass production and I chatted to various people about the possibility of a windfarm at Westmill.

Autumn 1992
I put up an anenometer on part of the farm that had once been a wartime airfield.
It seemed it might be a suitable site due to its relatively elevated position, lack of hedges and open aspect particuarly to the south-west.

Early 1994
A year or so later with a year or so of wind data and the windspeeds looking reasonable I start to take the project forward.

November 1995
Put in a planning application for 5 Carter 300 wind turbines complete with volantary Environmental Impact Assessment. Carters were the only UK manufactured wind turbines at that time, hope to put up wind farm as a joint venture with Carters. Start investigating the opportunities for community ownership. Local opposition from Watchfield Parish Council, but also local support, especially from Oxfordshire Friends of the Earth.

1996 - 1999
Next four years struggle with getting planning permission and a NFFO contract (to sell the electricity ). Both struggles far too long and tortuous to even attempt to describe here, fortunately tenacity pays off and I eventually achieve both... fast forward to...

November 1999
Eventually get planning permission for 5 Carter wind turbines... 5 years later!!!... PHEW! but... Carters have recently gone out of business, so... look at other options... Agree in principle to work with The Wind Fund (part of Triodos Bank) to put up a community (of interest) owned wind farm. Vestas 850 wind turbines seem to be the best alternative to the Carters.

The Vestas 850 has the same tower height as the Carter wind turbine (50m) but has much longer blades, 26m compared to 12m. They also produce more than four times the amount of electricity, 8.8 GWh per year compared to 2.2 GWh per year for the Carters. This is enough electricity for about 2000 ''average'' homes, compared to 500 homes for the Carters.

January 2000
Put in planning permission for five Vestas wind turbines.