Turbines that made history as the UK's first commercial wind farm were shut down this week, as a £11.8 million operation begins to make way for four giant replacements.

Delabole Wind Farm owner Good Energy is currently on site at the North Cornwall base, as its ten original wind turbines — erected in 1991 — are dismantled for dispatch to new homes in Lithuania and Poland.

With replacement gearboxes installed over the past six years, the old turbines are still in good working order, but, said Good Energy chief executive Juliet Davenport, UK community groups keen to acquire the secondhand technology had failed to get government support to finance the initiatives.

"There is a lot of interest — but the budgets are not there," said Ms Davenport. "In terms of low carbon grants and subsidies, the frameworks are there, but it is much harder to negotiate than people in Whitehall imagine when they are making up the regulations."

Good Energy, which between now and September is to install four replacement turbines secured finance for its Delabole project through a £9.6 million Co-operative Bank loan and made up the balance through equity from its own resources.

Capable of generating sufficient energy to power 8,000 homes, the turbines will see the Delabole farm increase its the proportion of "home made" electricity that Good Energy supplies to its consumers, from seven per cent, to 20 per cent of the total.

The Wiltshire-based company currently sources power from three other commercial suppliers; including hydroelectricity from Devon's Glen Lyn hydro in Lynmouth. It also buys from domestic energy producers and now supplies its "100 per cent renewable" electricity to around 26,000 UK consumers.

Good Energy is currently eyeing up 14 potential sites around the UK — including one at an undisclosed spot in Cornwall — to develop further wind farms. Close by Delabole Wind farm, in Davidstow, however, Cheshire-based Community Wind Power was blocked by planners this week to take forward £55 million plans for a 20-turbine operation.

"My sense of the site was that they came out of nowhere," said Ms Davenport. "They didn't talk to anyone. In my view, it was a pure 'planning play' — I sense a lack of commitment to the local area in what they were trying to do."

Ms Davenport believes that the coalition Government's move to de-centralise planning decisions from Whitehall will bode well for Good Energy, which says that community engagement is key to its own green energy developments. She said that a good relationship with the local community had been at the heart of its own schedule to upgrade Delabole Wind Farm prior to planning approval being granted in 2008.

Indeed, midway through a rainy August afternoon, there is a constant trickle of fascinated bypassers pulling off the B3314 to inspect a display in a miniscule "show tent" Good Energy has erected on site to coincide with the launch of its repower programme. Yet within Delabole, there is also a sense of resignation, rather than enthusiasm, from some locals towards the wind farm, who question how it benefits the local economy.

"We would love to offer locals a percentage off our electricity, but current legislation means that we can't do it," said Ms Davenport. "However, the coalition has suggested that business rates paid by wind farms could be distributed locally, enabling us to give back to the community via a discount on their council tax. That proposal is out there — and we are behind it."