Red tape thwarts wind revolution

Wind farm projects that could supply power to one in six homes in the UK have been stuck in Britain’s controversial planning system – prompting warnings that renewable energy has effectively been ’stopped in its tracks’.

The latest blow to the government’s energy and environment record comes as ministers are expected to admit within weeks that emissions of carbon dioxide rose again last year, despite repeated pledges to cut the main gas blamed for global warming.
Figures from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs show that wind farms capable of producing the equivalent of 11 gigawatts are delayed by planning disputes. Local residents say they are unsightly and there are fears over the noise they make.

The number of wind farms currently in planning limbo is equal to 8 per cent of UK electricity supply, or more than the output of the UK’s biggest coal-fired power station, Drax in north Yorkshire. Developers also face lengthy waits to be connected to the National Grid. One wind farm company has been offered connection after 2015.

Last week the Scottish Executive backed the world’s biggest wave farm off the coast of Orkney and a medium-sized wind project in Yorkshire got the go-ahead. Earlier this month a major offshore wind farm was approved. But the British Wind Energy Association says delays are mounting. Some projects have been stuck for six years and many for four or five years. Since May last year, only five of 21 decisions on wind farms have led to approval, said Maria McCaffery, the association’s chief executive.

Guardian