Onshore
been exempt from the restrictions on onshore wind in the UK, these projects are fundamentally new projects, requiring new foundations and an upgraded grid connection. This development can bring about local opposition – particularly from those unwilling to see a taller, larger turbine put in the place of the previous model.
In Scotland, Robottom has seen what he calls “a really good move” from the fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4), which involved providing consent in perpetuity for wind farms. In essence, this means that when you’re developing a repowering project, it will not be treated as a new site, but instead be viewed as a continuous wind turbine site.
Due to repowering, new wind turbine sizes have increased, leading to potential opposition from local communities.
“The biggest issue in Scotland is about the speed at which we can get stuff done,” explains Robottom. Octopus Energy, a British renewable energy group, has stated that a big challenge with onshore wind development in the UK is that the current system means it takes seven years on average to build and connect a new onshore wind turbine, despite the fact that this could be done in a year.
England, on the other hand, remains in the firm grasp of the Conservative party’s de facto ban on onshore wind farms – though, as noted earlier, this soon could change. Onshore wind is one of the cheapest and quickest forms of energy to build and consistently polls positively with the British public. A September 2022 YouGov survey found 87% of people would support a wind turbine in their community if it meant cheaper energy.
7 22
The number of years it takes on average to build and connect a new onshore wind turbine in the UK, despite the fact that this could be done in a year. Octopus Energy
And yet, the way that planning laws in England are written, any onshore wind development can only happen in areas identified by a local authority, which often don’t have the knowledge or resources to carry out that kind of wind assessment. At the same time, Robottom notes that “there is a very challengingly worded stipulation around community support, which basically means that one very vocal opponent can block an entire wind project”. In Wales, on the other hand, grid issues are the main stumbling block. “The biggest challenge in Wales is a lack of grid, not even a lack of grid investment – there is just no grid in mid-Wales,” Robottom notes, despite the country possessing some of the best onshore wind resources across the UK. The lack of grid infrastructure has proved a consistent challenge across the UK – however, this isn’t simply an issue for the wind industry, but one that has affected solar power, housing projects, and every other kind of infrastructure.
From a repowering perspective, the UK also faces a number of challenges. While repowering has typically
Robottom also notes that one of the main challenges facing the global wind industry concerns a deficiency in key skills. While the onshore industry can’t compete with offshore in terms of technicians and skills, he believes they instead should be working to complement each other, envisioning a future where people enter the industry and gain experience through working on onshore projects, before moving on to floating wind and then bigger projects offshore.
The rest of the West The UK onshore wind industry isn’t the only one with obstacles to overcome, of course. For example, while 2022 has seen some positive moves for the wind industry in the US, such as the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act – part of which looks to invest in domestic energy production while promoting clean energy – there is a lot of uncertainty over how this policy will be implemented, how the tax credits will be applied, and how big of an impact it will have on the development of the local supply chain. As we’ve, lingering policy uncertainty is plaguing onshore wind across the world. In Europe, permitting delays are one of the main issues effecting onshore wind, with the market hesitant to invest due to global instability and market uncertainty. At the same time, with the best wind resources already used by windfarms – forcing new projects to move closer to population centres – and wind turbine sizes growing larger and larger, public opposition is also likely to increase in the coming years. Aaron Barr, global head of onshore wind energy
at Wood Mackenzie, highlights a recent proposal by the European Commission to try to accelerate the permitting process for renewable energy sources. Under the proposal, renewable energy projects “would be presumed to be of overriding public interest” and benefit from shorter permitting procedures, which range from one month for solar rooftop installations to six months for the repowering of large wind farms. However, these kinds of drastic solutions, while much needed, can also run the risk of backfiring if local communities feel these projects are being forced upon them.
World Wind Technology /
www.worldwind-technology.com
Jacques Tarnero/
Shutterstock.com
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