Onshore
ince 2015, when David Cameron changed the planning laws, England’s onshore wind industry has effectively ground to a halt. Only 17 new onshore wind farms have been approved since then, following what amounted to effectively a ban on new turbines. This pace of development is glacially slow, especially set against the more ambitious targets that government advisers have been calling for. According to a report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), it would take 4,700 years at the present rate for the nation to reach its desired onshore wind capacity. By contrast, had annual build-out rates matched the average pre-ban level, an extra 1.7GW would have been added by 2022. That’s enough to power 1.5 million homes over the winter. Cameron’s ban, which was controversial even at the time, has remained unpopular among renewable energy advocates, a cross-party group of MPs, and a sizeable proportion of the British public. So, when news broke that Rishi Sunak’s government had finally rescinded the ban, it seemed like there was reason to be hopeful. “To increase our energy security and develop a cleaner, greener economy, we are introducing new measures to allow local communities to back onshore wind power projects,” said Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove on 5 September 2023, announcing the decision.
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Claire Coutinho, the energy secretary, added that onshore wind had a key role to play in the UK’s energy mix, and that “these changes will help speed up the delivery of projects where local communities want them”. Of course, it should be noted that the ban and its amendment apply to England specifically, and that the planning process has long been more permissive in Scotland and Wales. Despite the supposed boost to onshore wind, many commentators were quick to remark that the changes don’t go far enough. Shadow Climate Secretary Ed Miliband said the government had “bottled it again”, while Greenpeace UK’s policy director, Doug Parr, claimed “developers will continue to face uncertainty over planning process and be beholden to quixotic decisions by local councils”.
James Robottom, head of onshore wind at RenewableUK, argues that this was less a U-turn and more a “slight softening at the edges”, in actuality. “It’s crazy that it’s easier to build a waste incinerator than an onshore wind farm,” he says. “In terms of what a perfect planning framework would look like, I don’t think we know yet, but we just need onshore wind to be treated like any other technology.”
Going for the small fix To understand what has changed, we need to go back to 2015 when the moratorium was introduced. Despite pledging to lead the “greenest government
World Wind Technology /
www.worldwind-technology.com
ever”, Cameron clamped down hard on onshore wind in his 2015 election manifesto. Claiming that people were “fed up” with “unsightly” wind farms, the then-prime minister ended subsidies to onshore wind – a support measure not reinstated till 2020. He also added a footnote into the planning guidance that created two new barriers to onshore wind development in England. The first was around planning processes for local authorities. The second stipulated that the impact on local communities needed to be “fully addressed”. In practice, this meant a single objection from a local resident would be enough to stop the project in its tracks. “The footnote applies to any farm of one turbine or more that’s above 11m, which is tiny,” says Robottom. “Rather than removing the footnote and treating onshore wind like any other infrastructure, Rishi Sunak’s government has kept the two hurdles but lowered them slightly.”
The new policy framework does allow for a little more flexibility. There are a few more ways that the local authority can identify areas for development, while a proposed incentive scheme will ensure that local people see the benefits. Meanwhile, individual residents have lost their power to quash a project. “The wording has changed from an ambiguous ‘fully addressed’ to an equally ambiguous ‘appropriately addressed’,” says Robottom. “That removes one person being able to block it, but it leaves it open to interpretation. Investor interest is still basically zero in England because if you keep those hurdles there it’s risky for developers.” Joshua Emden, a senior research fellow at the IPPR, agrees that the reworded footnote is unlikely to be enough to reassure investors. Developers are much more likely to turn to EU countries in which the planning framework is more supportive. “The wording still requires councils to make a decision one way or another,” he says. “If you are a wind developer, there’s always a risk the council will be able to scupper your project very easily.
Only two new onshore wind turbines have been built in England in 2022, the year after the effective ‘ban’ was lifted.
76%
The percentage of the British public that support building renewable energy projects in their local area, according to a 2022 poll. RenewableUK
16%
The percentage of Conservative Party voters, surveyed in 2022 that thought the block on onshore wind should remain. RenewableUK
21
MarcelClemens/
Shutterstock.com
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