THE GALES lashing Scapegoat Hill proved too strong for a new wind turbine.

The winds reached 65mph yesterday and that meant turbine engineer Dean Staveley had to close it down.

Mr Staveley, of wind and solar engineering company Newgen, took the reading from the brand new wind turbine just installed in the hilltop village.

The windmill – which stands at 25-metres-high – is the tallest in Kirklees, Dean told the Examiner.

He said: “Up here is the perfect place for a turbine and especially if the weather carries on like this.

“Huddersfield is a great location for wind turbines because it’s so high above sea level.

“And I don’t think Huddersfield has a lot of NIMBYs – people say they like the look of turbines and don’t mind them.”

But yesterday’s fierce wind and storms were too much even for the Canadian Endurance E3120 turbine – which has to be shut down for safety reasons if winds reach over 56mph.

Dean, from Netherton, and his men installed the turbine in a farmer’s field at Scapegoat Hill near Golcar just a few days before Christmas.

They had to lay a 450-metre aluminium track to transport the turbine across the muddy field to where it now sits, and use a crane to hoist it into position.

Dean, 36, said: “The weather up here was just like it was now and it was a nightmare, it was horrible.

“We’d booked the crane for two to three days but we ended up having it for five days.

“Christmas was coming and all the lads were getting fed up with how long it was taking.

“The winds were up to 20mph when we were putting it up – but we took a calculated risk and got it done.”

The 50kW turbine is owned by Kirkburton investment company DC21 and will provide the farm-owner with cheap power.

The company will also be able to sell electricity back to the National Grid through the Government’s Feed In Tariff.