Renew On Line (UK) 58

Extracts from NATTA's journal
Renew, issue 158 Nov-Dec 2005

4. Welsh Wind plan

The Welsh Assembly Government is committed to adopting ‘cleaner, more efficient energy production’ according to a consultation document launched in June. The Energy Route Map includes policies for Wales on energy supply and sets out dates for energy policy objectives to be met, and new planning guidance for onshore windfarms. Its detailed plan for wind involves an estimated 400 turbines being put up inside the areas deemed suitable, which include Carno North in Powys and Coed Morgannwg, with perhaps 100 in each. Other sites will be located at Clocaenog Forest in Gwynedd, Newtown South in Powys, Nant-y-Moch in Ceredigion, Pontardawe in the Swansea Valley and Brechfa Forest in Carmarthenshire, each likely to have between 25 and 50 turbines. Planning applications for turbines are still subject to approval by local authorities, unless they would generate more than 50MW of electricity, in which case the decision rests with the Department of Trade and Industry. The Minister for Environment, Planning and the Countryside, Carwyn Jones, said, “I am confident that the documents issued set out a planning framework that is appropriate for Wales and will enable us to meet our commitment to deliver four terrawatt hours of electricity generated from renewable sources by 2010. We gave careful consideration to the responses made to consultation on the drafts last year, and these have enabled us to make amendments which improve the documents while enabling us to protect Wales’ key environmental assets of national and international importance.”

However the Conservative leader in the Assembly, Nick Bourne, was not happy: “The Government just seem hell bent on this. We are going to be pushing hard for a full debate on this, and in the meantime we will be supporting the fights against individual wind farms across Wales. Other avenues need to be looked at- tidal and wave power, solar power, hydro-electric power- instead of these unsightly things which are not proven to be efficient or reliable in the amount of energy they produce”.

And Caroline Evans, co-ordinator of the Brechfa Forest Energy Action Group, said the decision was devastating for the Welsh countryside and a death-knell for the Welsh uplands. 

By contrast Friends of the Earth Cymru welcomed the strategy, but  insisted that even more sites were needed for wind farms in Wales. Their Welsh Assembly campaigner Gordon James said onshore wind farms were the only credible way of achieving renewable targets. He saw them as, ‘the most technically advanced and cost-effective of the renewable energy options. Although FoE Cymru is taking a lead role in supporting other renewable energy systems, such as solar power, energy crops, tidal lagoons and wave power, we recognise these cannot yet deliver the amounts of clean energy required to address climate change.’

However FoE Cymru were unhappy that the new Route map mentioned tidal barrages but not tidal lagoons, which FoE felt were a better bet. 

See: www.wales.gov.uk/keypubconsultation/index.htm

Source: http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/ July 13th

Wales likes wind

A new survey conducted in Wales by NOP World found that 75% of those asked agreed that wind farms are necessary to help meet current and future energy needs. The survey highlighted what the British Wind Energy Association called ‘the growing support for wind energy’, as Cefn Croes near Aberystwyth, the most powerful wind farm in the UK, was officially commissioned, bringing the total wind power capacity in the UK to over 1000 MW. The poll was unveiled at the Welsh launch of the pro-wind Embrace the Revolution campaign, by the BWEA. Welsh ITV weather presenter Sian Lloyd commented: “These positive results show that the people of Wales are thinking clearly about the future of the planet and I am proud to be one of them”.  The BWEA said that the poll  challenge anti-wind myths put out by a vocal minority movement against wind power.

Andrew Davies, the Energy and Transport  Minister, said: “This is an important day for the renewable energy sector in Wales. Not only have we witnessed the opening of the most powerful wind farm in the UK, capable of providing clean electricity for over 40,000 homes every year, but we have again seen that the overwhelming majority of people in Wales recognise the importance of wind energy as part of our future energy mix.”

The poll, which interviewed 500 people across Wales, also found that:

•   54% agreed that wind farms are necessary to produce renewable power  and what they look like is unimportant
• 50% supported the idea of having a windfarm in their area: 35% were  against
• 77% backed the idea of individual households generating some or all of their  power using wind.