National Wind Power’s Lambrigg wind farm in
Cumbria is very popular, according to an opinion survey carried out
by independent consultants RBA Research. They found that 74% of local
people asked supported it, including 37% who said they supported it
strongly. Opposition was very low, with only 8% of residents saying
they opposed it. 18% of respondents expressed no opinion. The survey
also suggested that people who were more informed about wind farm, were
more in favour - support amongst those who had visited on foot went
up to 87%. Overall 24% of residents felt it made the scenery ‘more
interesting’, 29% felt it ‘spoilt the scenery’.
... but not here
Meanwhile, in Wales opposition continues, as we
report on the next page. It has certainly given rise to some colourful
reactions. According to the Independent (April 2/02) the as yet only
hypothetical windfarm at Cefn Croes in mid Wales attracted the
comment from the Church of Englands environment spokesman John Oliver,
the Bishop of Hereford, that it was an act of vandalism equivalent to
the Talibans destruction of the ancient Buddhist statues of Bariyan
in Afghanistan.
Wind Battles in Wales
Energy Minister Brian Wilson has given the go-ahead
for a major new wind farm at Cefn Croes in central Wales. But
despite the local Ceredigion council having overwhelmingly approved
the project, some local people are against it, and are unhappy that,
under the planning rules, large projects like this are considered by
the DTI, without the option of Public Inquiry if there is significant
concern. Martin Wright, who heads the Cefn Croes campaign, a group of
local people opposed to further windfarms in the area, and specifically
to a plan to plant 39 turbines on the slopes of Plynlimon mountain above
the village of Cymystwyth, told the Guardian (Feb.20). ‘This
land is under threat. Wales has 44% of all the turbines in Britain,
and the majority are in mid-Wales, which has done more than any other
area in Britain for renewables.’
The Cefn Croes site, he said, is in the heart of
a designated environmentally sensitive area and a special landscape
area; it is next to one of the largest sites of special scientific interest
in Wales; and it will undermine the cultural and spiritual inheritance
of Wales. Moreover, he added, it will not benefit local people and is
being imposed on the community by Enron Wind, a subsidiary of the collapsed
US multinational.
According to John Vidal in the Guardian, Wrights
objections are echoed by the Wales Green Party, the Conservatives, and,
especially, by influential conservationist and preservationist groups,
including the Welsh Assembly’s statutory advisers, the Countryside
Council for Wales, the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW),
the Snowdonia Society, the National Trust and the Council for National
Parks. The groups have appealed to Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of
State a the DTI, to re-consider the decision. Their objection is that
the scheme went over the head of local community councils and "has
made a travesty of democracy"- although in fact it has been through
the standard process, including thorough impact surveys, consultations,
and debate. Clearly though, there are strong pressures coming from government
these days to press ahead with wind farms, and the opponents argue that
mid-Wales is being sacrificed to meet renewable energy targets. Further
down the line the government has proposed significant changes in the
town and country planning rules that will make it harder for local groups
to object to projects of any kind, so this conflict is seen as something
as a test case.
The changes proposed in the Planning Green Paper
amount to some of the most radical reforms of the planning system in
half a century. The aim is to avoid high profile and lengthy public
inquiries by introducing a new fast track procedures for major projects
of national significance, with planning permission being decided by
Parliament. Although wind farms might benefit, there are worries that
the proposed changes will reduce public participation in the planning
process to the detriment of local democracy and environmental protection.
Potentially controversial planning decisions relating to new airport
capacity, new roads, the building of nuclear plants and radioactive
waste storage sites could be swept through by Parliament. Also, only
individuals with a property interest in a proposal would have the right
to be heard at a public inquiry. This could result in business concerns
taking precedence over wider social and environmental issues.
In a way it would be rather unfortunate if it falls
to the wind farm objectors and parochial interests to be in the front
line of resistance to these changes. As John Vidal commented ‘the
reality is that they routinely object to almost every sustainable energy
scheme proposed. Small-scale hydro power, biomass schemes, community
windfarms, and even minute ones planned by enterprising hill farmers
needing to diversify to survive, have all been blocked.’
Peter Hinson, the British Wind Energy Association's
representative in Wales, who has worked on many Welsh schemes, told
the Guardian that the objecting groups were undemocratic, irrational,
out of step with the mood of the times, and irresponsible to the communities
to which wind farms can bring work and rental money. "They claim
to represent local communities, but they don't. And they could affect
the long-term development of the Welsh countryside. Their view is that
the landscape should be untarnished. They seem to want a landscape with
no one living in it. But the key point is, whose landscape is it? Is
it the property of a few unelected groups of preservationists or of
communities? I talk to local councillors. They like wind farming, as
long as it abides by planning law. Rural communities keep saying: ‘Give
us jobs, bring us economic development’."
The conflict is likely to deepen given the new
plan, by the Camddwr Community Trust, for 165 wind turbines of up
to 120m in a 48 square mile area just 15 miles away from Cefn Croes.
Merfyn Williams, head of the CPRW , told the Guardian "It
is nothing less than a declaration of war on the Cambrian Mountains
landscape and on the integrity of the heart of rural Wales".
* SERA, Labours Environmental lobby group, has
proposed that one way out of this sort of planning impasse, is to ensure
that, while there should be a general presumption in the planning guidelines
in favour of environmentally-beneficial schemes such as renewable energy,
there should also be a presumption against environmentally-damaging
proposals such as an airport extension. However, that begs the issue
- some people clearly see wind farms as environmentally undesirable.
See our Groups section for further discussion - with coverage from both
sides of the debate.
Brownfield wind site
Corus, the UK steel company, and AMEC Wind, have
applied for planning permission for a 47.5 MW wind farm with nineteen
2.5 MW turbines on the south bank of the River Tees, on a major ex-industrial
‘brown field’ site on land owned by Corus. A subsequent phase
in the £30m project could increase the number to 30, with the total
capacity then being 70 MW.
* Meanwhile, patterns of ownership continue to
shift. Innogy, the npower offshoot, who own National Wind Power (and
also Yorkshire Electricity and Regenesys) was recently taken over,
in a £5.2bn deal, by the German utility RWE.
Offshore Wind starts Scroby Sands gets go ahead
The government has given approval for the UK’s
first commercial offshore wind farm - 38 turbines with a total capacity
of 76 megawatts, at Scroby Sands 2.5km off Great Yarmouth.
"This development marks a significant step forward for the wind
industry", said Energy Minister Brian Wilson. The scheme, to
be installed by Powergen, is the first of 18 sites currently being considered
for development to win approval. It should start generating in 2003.
The 60m tall turbine are likely to be built by Denmark’s Vestas.
The go ahead was announced at the Offshore Wind
2002 conference organised by the British Wind Energy Association which
heard that the overall goal is to have 4000 MW of offshore wind power
by 2010. However Gordon Shearer, a BWEA board member and vice president
of Shell WindEnergy, noted that "we
need an early start if we are to make this target",
and there were calls for the governments consultation process to be
speeded up, so that the next round of offshore licenses could be awarded
in October instead of early next year as planned. Then there was the
issue of funding. The government has set aside £74m in competitive grants
for offshore wind projects, and the first grants are to be awarded in
June, with a maximum of £14 m per project, a figure which rises to £30
m for later rounds in December and June 2003. But Wilson told the conference
the government had received bids for capital grants for wind offshore
schemes of £160m, so some contenders will obviously be disappointed.
But it does show there is enthusiasm for offshore projects .
As Wilson noted ‘A
real momentum is building for offshore renewables and not just for
wind but wave and other marine based technologies such as wave and
tidal’.
Solway Firth
While most of the UK’s proposed offshore wind
farms are south of the border, there is one proposed in Scottish waters-
on Solway Firth. The Public consultation process began on that
recently - on both shores of the Firth. TXU, which owns English electricity
suppliers Eastern and Norweb, and Offshore Energy Resources Ltd, released
photo montages showing 60 130m-tall wind turbines in the Firth, clearly
visible from both shores. Capable of generating 180 MW - about 25% of
Scotland’s 2010 Kyoto target - they would be in Scottish waters,
meaning the Scottish Executive will be the planning authority, although
the electricity would flow south. The £200m wind farm would interconnect
with the United Utilities distribution network in Cumbria, via a sub-sea
cable. The turbines would be built on Robin Rigg, a shallow sandbank
approximately 6.4 miles from the Scottish coast and 7.1 miles from the
English coast.
They would supply about 160,000 homes, equating
to 75% of Cumbrian households or more than one and half times the domestic
energy requirement for Dumfries and Galloway. Construction would last
around 18 months and bring more than 100 contracting jobs to the area.
Several leading turbine and tower manufacturers, including Vestas at
Campbeltown, are thought to be in the running for the construction work.
Welcoming the plan, Richard Dixon, of Friends of
the Earth Scotland, said: "Offshore
wind turbines are going to be extremely important to the UK. It is a
shame only one seabed license has been granted for Scotland."
Based on a Report in the Herald
