‘Presumption in favour of sustainable development’ may fast track wind turbine construction

Would this be better or worse with a wind turbine?

The reforms laid out by the coalition government aim to simplify the application process – fast tracking wind farms, many pieces of essential infrastructure, such as airports, waste processing plants and nuclear power stations.

In simple terms, there will need to be enough protest by residents speaking out against any “sustainable development” to halt it, rather than support for it to go ahead. Many feel that wind farms will automatically fall into this category, and are concerned that regulations that have protected the British countryside for many decades is about to be re-written.

The idea is to give the power to approve projects to local governments, abandoning the current top-down approach, but lobbyists are worried that local people will not be able to fight the large corporations seeking to get permission for new developments. The Campaign to Protect Rural England have outlined their concerns over the propsals.

Smaller projects such as personal wind turbines and solar panels will now need no planning permission.

Chancellor George Osborne expressed an inkling of doubt in regard to Britain’s “low-carbon economy” at the Conservative Part Conference earlier today, saying that “Britain makes up less than 2% of the world’s carbon emissions… We’re not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business.”

This comes a few days after Greg Clark agreed to listen to concerns over the planning reforms, promising that suitable amendments will be made.

Wind Power took another hit in recent weeks, with studies on Texas, Colorado and Irish grids showing that that wind power only reduces CO2 output by around 2%, due to the need to spin up gas-fired power stations whenever the wind is not blowing strongly enough.

An Energy White Paper is due to be released tomorrow (Wednesday) which will outline the government’s plans for the future of Britain’s energy policies.