Written - Planning for Renewable Energy

The One Wales agreement recognises that Wales is an energy rich country and seeks to ensure that we adapt to the changing energy production in a sustainable way. In order to promote these principles, One Wales seeks to promote the development of renewable energy projects and commits the Welsh Assembly Government to revising upwards the targets for energy from renewables drawn from a range of sources.

The planning system in Wales is a devolved responsibility of the Assembly Government, but is only responsible for determining projects up to 50MW.  Above this threshold decisions are currently the responsibility of the UK Government. There are consequently a significant number of large renewable energy projects being proposed in Wales which are determined outside our planning system.  The One Wales Government is committed to encouraging further renewable energy development by increasing Welsh Assembly Government targets for a range of technologies and ensuring that the planning system is an effective vehicle for the delivery of these projects.

In March this year we published our Low Carbon Energy Policy Statement which establishes a positive framework for energy policy in Wales. This identifies the potential outputs of a range of renewable energy technologies which deliver our One Wales commitment to revise upwards the targets for a variety of renewable energy sources. The challenge we now face is to try to ensure that the planning system is capable of helping to deliver these aspirations in an efficient and rational way.

The current Welsh Assembly Government planning policy for renewable energy was published in 2005 and is comprised of a Ministerial Interim Policy Statement  2005/01 and Technical Advice Note (TAN) 8. Our planning policy seeks to facilitate all forms of renewable energy technologies but is most closely associated with the advice in respect of large scale onshore wind development. TAN 8 identifies 7 Strategic Search Areas in order to allow for the optimisation of the wind resources and economies of scale, whilst at the same time protecting most of upland Wales. This government is proposing no change to the SSAs as I recognise that many schemes are at various stages in the consent regimes now operating in Wales.  A stable and consistent approach to the TAN 8 Strategic Search Areas is vital to deliver such projects.

The One Wales commitment to deliver on revising targets for renewable energy needs to reflect newer information about the full range of renewables and green job opportunities that are available 5 years on.  This will be dealt with through a twin track approach: firstly by updating the planning policy for renewable energy. As a consequence, over the summer we will be issuing new draft planning policy on renewable energy for public consultation, with the intention of updating the appropriate chapter of Planning Policy Wales. Following the public consultation we hope to put in place the final version of the updated policy by the end of the year.  TAN 8 will be amended as appropriate subsequently.

The second work stream we will be taking forward relates to the planning application process. Informed by the recent GVA Grimley Report on the system in Wales, the Assembly Government will be tackling a number of procedural issues. We need to ensure that the planning system supports the Assembly Government’s priorities, including economic recovery and low carbon/ renewable energy.