Nick Clegg’s party has said it “supports” developers seeking damages from local authorities that raise objections “in contravention” of Government planning policy.
In a policy paper, the Lib Dems attack Conservative councils that register opposition to wind farms and claim that only 10 per cent of the population are “consistently opposed” to turbines.
Glyn Davies, MP for Montgomeryshire, described the Lib Dem position as “outrageous” and an “insult to local democracy”.
The policy document states: “Liberal Democrats would support developers who seek punitive damages against councils who do not follow National Policy Guidelines in determining consents.”
“For example, many (particularly Conservative) councils have adopted criteria (such as minimum separation distances from dwellings), in contravention of government planning policy.”
Eric Pickles, the Local Government Secretary, has promised to “give local communities a greater say” on where wind farms are built.
The Government issued guidance that officials said would effectively end the spread of turbines, which have been blamed for blighting landscapes.
There were concerns last month that the guidance had been watered down after a separate planning document warned councils not to create “inflexible” turbine-free zones by imposing blanket bans of wind farms being built near houses.
However, sources at the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) last night said that ministers remain committed to helping “councils turn down inappropriate wind turbines and resist unwarranted planning appeals”.
Peter Luff, Conservative MP for Mid Worcestershire, who last year tried to bring in laws stopping wind farms being built less than 2km from housing, said: “It’s an extraordinary position. The Lib Dems aren’t going to win many friends in rural constituencies.
“Of course there must be national policy guidelines on controversial planning questions…but we also believe in localism and local communities are often better-placed to judge what is suitable for their area.”
He added: “What it so special about wind turbines that Liberal Democrats obsess with getting them built in inappropriate locations?”
And Shaun Spiers, chief executive of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said: “I would be surprised if there weren’t some Liberal Democrat councils seeking to block wind farms.
“It certainly is really unhelpful language to be using. If you care about climate change and if you think that renewable energy has an important part to play in stopping climate change then what you don’t want to be doing is affronting decent people who care about their landscapes because you bring the whole argument into disrepute.”
Jake Berry, MP for Rossendale and Darwen, added: “I am very concerned about these plans for a backdoor stealth tax on councils who stand up for their local residents against big corporate wind farm developers.
“Liberal Democrats' obsession with big business and towering wind turbines is so blinkered that they want to abandon localism and local decision-making.”
The wind farms policy paper will be debated at the upcoming Lib Dem conference in Glasgow. If it is approved, it will become party policy and could become part of the manifesto for the 2015 election
It also claims that in public opinion surveys, wind farms “consistently attract support from around two-thirds of the public” but that “the 10 per cent or so who are consistently opposed are usually more vocal”.
2013年8月6日 星期二
2013年7月29日 星期一
Benefits outweigh the problems
As the 4CG director chosen by shareholders to develop local renewable energy projects I have also become a director in Awel Deg. This is because Awel Deg not only share the same community ownership structure as 4CG but share the same aims to develop the local economy sustainably to benefit local businesses and individuals rather than finance and opportunity leaving the area.
As there have been several significant studies on the effect of windfarms on tourism and the local economy (Welsh Development Agency plus studies in Devon and Cumbria) all finding insignificant effect and as the Ferwig turbine is not a windfarm but a single machine there is very little chance that any economic damage will occur and in fact there is a good chance that eco-tourism from more monied visitors will improve the local tourism sector. This is because the opportunities to site a local community owned wind turbine returning significant gain back to the local community are very rare.
This rarity will generate news stories and marketing for the Cardigan area as a destination where local people have created something sustainable and special, well worth visiting and hopefully also attracting incoming investment in jobs from forward looking companies who feel that they could benefit from the ‘brand’ of such a forward looking sustainable area. Why rare?, not only must all the stringent technical constraints be overcome but the site must be windy to generate good levels of renewable power and income and most importantly, there must be a partnering landowner willing to rent his land for a fraction of what could be earned from developing the turbine themselves.
The UK needs new renewable energy generation badly as recently confirmed by Ed Davy the Secretary of State for the relevant Westminster ministry and all compliant sites will be seriously considered for wind generation. If the local community cannot achieve their own wind development , commercial developers will step in with next to no gain for local people and yet again money and opportunity will leave the area.
In a nutshell, the proposed turbine in Ferwig has been proven in technical studies to comply with all of the technical constraints required to be overcome by planning as it is sited to be further from housing than required to limit noise to a nationally accepted level, does not interrupt radar from Aberporth, is not on a recognised significant bird migratory route, complies with Welsh Assembly policy to develop Welsh wind energy resource and most importantly will generate approximately 420,000 per year in Feed in Tariff and energy sales income.
It is possible to ‘book’ your Feed in Tariff rate the day after planning approval has been given to maintain this income against future political changes and if sufficient local community enterprise shareholders can be found to benefit from the likely 5% tax free return on shares to raise the 1.25M project cost, this income is guaranteed by the government for 20 years.
This means that the project will generate over 8 million to benefit the local economy in the form of good local investments, rent for a local farmer, jobs in turbine maintenance and in distribution of the 5million ‘profit’ all to be spent on local projects chosen by our community shareholders.More information about the program is available on the web site at scfwindturbine.com.
As there have been several significant studies on the effect of windfarms on tourism and the local economy (Welsh Development Agency plus studies in Devon and Cumbria) all finding insignificant effect and as the Ferwig turbine is not a windfarm but a single machine there is very little chance that any economic damage will occur and in fact there is a good chance that eco-tourism from more monied visitors will improve the local tourism sector. This is because the opportunities to site a local community owned wind turbine returning significant gain back to the local community are very rare.
This rarity will generate news stories and marketing for the Cardigan area as a destination where local people have created something sustainable and special, well worth visiting and hopefully also attracting incoming investment in jobs from forward looking companies who feel that they could benefit from the ‘brand’ of such a forward looking sustainable area. Why rare?, not only must all the stringent technical constraints be overcome but the site must be windy to generate good levels of renewable power and income and most importantly, there must be a partnering landowner willing to rent his land for a fraction of what could be earned from developing the turbine themselves.
The UK needs new renewable energy generation badly as recently confirmed by Ed Davy the Secretary of State for the relevant Westminster ministry and all compliant sites will be seriously considered for wind generation. If the local community cannot achieve their own wind development , commercial developers will step in with next to no gain for local people and yet again money and opportunity will leave the area.
In a nutshell, the proposed turbine in Ferwig has been proven in technical studies to comply with all of the technical constraints required to be overcome by planning as it is sited to be further from housing than required to limit noise to a nationally accepted level, does not interrupt radar from Aberporth, is not on a recognised significant bird migratory route, complies with Welsh Assembly policy to develop Welsh wind energy resource and most importantly will generate approximately 420,000 per year in Feed in Tariff and energy sales income.
It is possible to ‘book’ your Feed in Tariff rate the day after planning approval has been given to maintain this income against future political changes and if sufficient local community enterprise shareholders can be found to benefit from the likely 5% tax free return on shares to raise the 1.25M project cost, this income is guaranteed by the government for 20 years.
This means that the project will generate over 8 million to benefit the local economy in the form of good local investments, rent for a local farmer, jobs in turbine maintenance and in distribution of the 5million ‘profit’ all to be spent on local projects chosen by our community shareholders.More information about the program is available on the web site at scfwindturbine.com.
2013年6月17日 星期一
Runway extension could affect wind farm plans
Cielo Wind Power has been thinking about building a wind farm somewhere on Port of Brownsville property for a decade or so.
The Austin-based company is still thinking about it, and it's by no means certain all the pieces will fall into place and all the obstacles will be cleared away for such a project to become a reality.
So says Walter Hornaday, who founded Cielo in 1998. According to its website, the firm has completed more than a dozen wind farm projects, most of them in Texas and two in New Mexico. The company recently began another wind farm outside Amarillo that will feature 87 GE wind turbines.
Brownsville is a promising site for a wind farm, though the project could meet an obstacle in the form of Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport's plans to extend its runway, Hornaday said.
A longer runway would mean planes on approach would fly lower farther away from the airport, which could preclude construction of towering wind turbine.
It's premature to say, though, since it all comes down to where Cielo wants to build versus how airspace is affected. Airport officials hope to extend the main runway from its current 7,400 feet to 10,000 feet or longer. An environmental review is still under way, though, and no funding has been allocated for the project yet.
"Obviously if you extend the runway there's more airspace that's going to be covered," Director of Aviation Larry Brown said. That said, it's not yet clear to what extent changes in airspace would affect Cielo's plans, he said.
"Until we know more details, we can't answer the question," Brown said. "It's all going to be a function of math."
He said Corpus Christi's airport is dealing with airspace issues arising from wind farms located south and east of Sarita.
Hornaday said he hopes Cielo, if it does decide to move forward with a project at the port, can come to an arrangement with the airport amenable to all parties concerned.
"We're trying to see what they will allow to be done," he said. "It's highly speculative at this point. It's a great, windy area. The pieces are there. It's a good wind resource and there's a growing demand for electricity, but there are a lot of moving parts."
We suspect those opposed to energy generated by wind turbines will be rubbing their hands together with a good deal of glee this morning, following revelations that the wind farm industry is being propped up by domestic energy bills.
New figures indicate that wind turbine owners received 1.2 billion in consumer subsidies last year. That is, unquestionably, a staggeringly large amount to draw from the public purse at any time, let alone in this period of austerity.
So it seems clear that this assessment of the balance sheet for wind power will be another blow for an industry already reeling from the Government's recent announcement that new rules will give people greater powers to block turbine applications, when they are proposed near where they live.
We do not, however, subscribe to the view that all wind turbines must therefore be uprooted and dismantled. Far from it. wind energy is a new technology that should and does command significant investment. There is no doubt that wind energy is here to stay. It must surely be allowed to play a part in helping keep the lights on as traditional high-carbon energy sources diminish.
The Austin-based company is still thinking about it, and it's by no means certain all the pieces will fall into place and all the obstacles will be cleared away for such a project to become a reality.
So says Walter Hornaday, who founded Cielo in 1998. According to its website, the firm has completed more than a dozen wind farm projects, most of them in Texas and two in New Mexico. The company recently began another wind farm outside Amarillo that will feature 87 GE wind turbines.
Brownsville is a promising site for a wind farm, though the project could meet an obstacle in the form of Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport's plans to extend its runway, Hornaday said.
A longer runway would mean planes on approach would fly lower farther away from the airport, which could preclude construction of towering wind turbine.
It's premature to say, though, since it all comes down to where Cielo wants to build versus how airspace is affected. Airport officials hope to extend the main runway from its current 7,400 feet to 10,000 feet or longer. An environmental review is still under way, though, and no funding has been allocated for the project yet.
"Obviously if you extend the runway there's more airspace that's going to be covered," Director of Aviation Larry Brown said. That said, it's not yet clear to what extent changes in airspace would affect Cielo's plans, he said.
"Until we know more details, we can't answer the question," Brown said. "It's all going to be a function of math."
He said Corpus Christi's airport is dealing with airspace issues arising from wind farms located south and east of Sarita.
Hornaday said he hopes Cielo, if it does decide to move forward with a project at the port, can come to an arrangement with the airport amenable to all parties concerned.
"We're trying to see what they will allow to be done," he said. "It's highly speculative at this point. It's a great, windy area. The pieces are there. It's a good wind resource and there's a growing demand for electricity, but there are a lot of moving parts."
We suspect those opposed to energy generated by wind turbines will be rubbing their hands together with a good deal of glee this morning, following revelations that the wind farm industry is being propped up by domestic energy bills.
New figures indicate that wind turbine owners received 1.2 billion in consumer subsidies last year. That is, unquestionably, a staggeringly large amount to draw from the public purse at any time, let alone in this period of austerity.
So it seems clear that this assessment of the balance sheet for wind power will be another blow for an industry already reeling from the Government's recent announcement that new rules will give people greater powers to block turbine applications, when they are proposed near where they live.
We do not, however, subscribe to the view that all wind turbines must therefore be uprooted and dismantled. Far from it. wind energy is a new technology that should and does command significant investment. There is no doubt that wind energy is here to stay. It must surely be allowed to play a part in helping keep the lights on as traditional high-carbon energy sources diminish.
2013年1月8日 星期二
Wind farms making way to reality
A last-minute rescue of a federal tax credit for renewable energy last week was welcomed by the companies behind two proposed wind-turbine projects in the area. However, it will likely be years before anyone around here sees any giant windmills going in the ground.
A U.S. production tax credit, extended as part of the fiscal-cliff deal passed by Congress and signed by the president, provides a rebate of 2.2 cents per kilowatt hour over a wind farm’s first 10 years of operation. That rebate can knock up to 30 percent off the cost of such a project.
But two wind farms in the works in north central Ohio still have numerous hurdles to clear before they can take advantage of the tax giveaway.
The Black Fork Wind Farm, a 91-turbine project west of Shelby that was given the go-ahead by the state a year ago, is slowly working its way through the appeals process in the Ohio Supreme Court — a number of area residents are seeking to halt the project on legal grounds.
Meanwhile, another wind farm proposed for northeastern Morrow County is still awaiting approval by the Ohio Power Siting Board before it can proceed.
“We are still actively developing the project. We were meeting with Richland and Crawford counties back in November and December and are working through the road-use issues,” said Scott Hawken, senior project manager with Element Power, an Oregon-based alternative energy company that’s handling the Black Fork project.
That wind farm is to be built over 24,200 acres in Crawford County’s Auburn, Jackson, Jefferson and Vernon townships and Richland County’s Plymouth, Sandusky and Sharon townships, with the cooperation of 150 landowners. It would be located west of Shelby, north of Crestline and nearly surround the village of Tiro. Ohio 598 would bisect the entire site from north to south.
“Sooner or later these things will have to come down, because everything eventually becomes obsolete,” Patrick Murphy, a Bucyrus attorney representing the appellants, said. “If this company goes bankrupt, who’s going to pay for that? It’s going to cost $30,000 to take one of these things down.”
Hawken, who noted local communities would split an estimated $1.8 million in tax revenues, said the Black Fork project would have a life span of 20 to 25 years.
“I would anticipate in 20 years that these projects get upgraded with newer technology,” he said. “This is a good location to gather wind for years and years to come.”
“ I believe in green energy, but we have other alternatives other than wind. We have a 110-year supply of natural gas under our feet, more energy than Saudi Arabia ever had, and it’s clean,” Murphy said.
“These farmers don’t want to be surrounded by 50-story structures. It doesn’t make any sense at all to do this.”
Opponents of wind turbines have also cited their danger to birds, noise level and aesthetic concerns. Studies into shadow flicker, caused by rapidly rotating blades, have not uncovered any significant health threat, although the flicker’s strobing effect has been shown to spook horses, disorient livestock and cause headaches in people.
“We don’t think the siting board gave us an opportunity to present our side and that it went beyond the scope of its authority,” Murphy said.
Although the Black Fork project has yet to secure a long-term agreement to purchase power from local utilities, “because of Ohio’s alternative energy portfolio standard, we are well-positioned to proceed with this project, with or without the tax incentive,” Hawken said.
A U.S. production tax credit, extended as part of the fiscal-cliff deal passed by Congress and signed by the president, provides a rebate of 2.2 cents per kilowatt hour over a wind farm’s first 10 years of operation. That rebate can knock up to 30 percent off the cost of such a project.
But two wind farms in the works in north central Ohio still have numerous hurdles to clear before they can take advantage of the tax giveaway.
The Black Fork Wind Farm, a 91-turbine project west of Shelby that was given the go-ahead by the state a year ago, is slowly working its way through the appeals process in the Ohio Supreme Court — a number of area residents are seeking to halt the project on legal grounds.
Meanwhile, another wind farm proposed for northeastern Morrow County is still awaiting approval by the Ohio Power Siting Board before it can proceed.
“We are still actively developing the project. We were meeting with Richland and Crawford counties back in November and December and are working through the road-use issues,” said Scott Hawken, senior project manager with Element Power, an Oregon-based alternative energy company that’s handling the Black Fork project.
That wind farm is to be built over 24,200 acres in Crawford County’s Auburn, Jackson, Jefferson and Vernon townships and Richland County’s Plymouth, Sandusky and Sharon townships, with the cooperation of 150 landowners. It would be located west of Shelby, north of Crestline and nearly surround the village of Tiro. Ohio 598 would bisect the entire site from north to south.
“Sooner or later these things will have to come down, because everything eventually becomes obsolete,” Patrick Murphy, a Bucyrus attorney representing the appellants, said. “If this company goes bankrupt, who’s going to pay for that? It’s going to cost $30,000 to take one of these things down.”
Hawken, who noted local communities would split an estimated $1.8 million in tax revenues, said the Black Fork project would have a life span of 20 to 25 years.
“I would anticipate in 20 years that these projects get upgraded with newer technology,” he said. “This is a good location to gather wind for years and years to come.”
“ I believe in green energy, but we have other alternatives other than wind. We have a 110-year supply of natural gas under our feet, more energy than Saudi Arabia ever had, and it’s clean,” Murphy said.
“These farmers don’t want to be surrounded by 50-story structures. It doesn’t make any sense at all to do this.”
Opponents of wind turbines have also cited their danger to birds, noise level and aesthetic concerns. Studies into shadow flicker, caused by rapidly rotating blades, have not uncovered any significant health threat, although the flicker’s strobing effect has been shown to spook horses, disorient livestock and cause headaches in people.
“We don’t think the siting board gave us an opportunity to present our side and that it went beyond the scope of its authority,” Murphy said.
Although the Black Fork project has yet to secure a long-term agreement to purchase power from local utilities, “because of Ohio’s alternative energy portfolio standard, we are well-positioned to proceed with this project, with or without the tax incentive,” Hawken said.
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