AN 87-metre wind turbine could soon tower over the landfill site in Buckden.

Waste Recycling Group (WRG), which owns the site has submitted a planning application to site a single Feed-in Tariff (FIT) wind turbine there.

At a maximum height of 87m to the tip of the blades, the proposed turbine is small by comparison with the 125-130-metre giants that have been the subject of a variety of wind farm proposals in Huntingdonshire in recent years.

The single turbine would produce enough low carbon electricity to power the equivalent of around 300 homes, WRG said.

Mike Snell, head of external affairs, added: “WRG is constantly looking for new opportunities to make a positive contribution to UK green energy infrastructure and support the UK in meeting its international commitments to renewable energy and climate change.

“We have a unique opportunity to make the most of our existing landholding by generating renewable energy and thereby maximising environmental benefit.”

The company’s consultants have told Huntingdonshire District Council that there were inadequate global reserves of fossil fuels, and wind energy exerted far less pressure on limited resources.

They add that Cambridgeshire is currently below its share of the Government’s 2020 and 2050 carbon reduction commitments, adding that the proposal “represents a unique opportunity to recover social and environmental value from an existing waste management facility.”

They say that, apart from being used as a quarry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the site had never been used for anything other than agriculture or landfill.

“The site location is a prime example of utilising an otherwise undevelopable area of land and creating a positive development for the region and nation as a whole,” they add.