Turbines ‘could spoil countryside for no reason’
Sep 9 2008 by Steve Dube, Western Mail
A GOVERNMENT “in a muddle” over its energy policy has been accused of allowing developers to make a fortune out of ruining the countryside.
Ivor Russell, secretary of the Carmarthenshire branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales, said the Welsh Assembly Government was in danger of making matters worse and destroying the countryside for no real purpose.
“What will our children make of it if they look back in a desert of useless wind turbines that have been made redundant by other major factors like nuclear power?” said Mr Russell in an address to the branch’s annual meeting in Llanarthne on Saturday.
He recalled that the branch had submitted a detailed response to the WAG consultation on the issue two years ago calling for a two-tiered approach of passive and active measures to reduce CO2 emissions.
The passive measures, including insulating all buildings, using only long-life lightbulbs, increased energy efficiency and reducing demand carried no risk but were being widely ignored. And on active measures – wind, wave, tidal, hydro and solar power – the Government was concentrating almost exclusively on wind.
Mr Russell warned that huge tracts of the Welsh landscape could become an industrial powerhouse with massive turbines and hundreds of miles of new pylons and wires across the countryside.
“All the wind turbines built in the world have together made only a very small diminution in the amount of CO2 emissions,” he said. “And there’s only any point in doing it if the major polluters – the United States, China and India – reduce their emissions.
“The turbines are getting higher all the time, along with the effects on people’s lives through noise and the loss of all the other amenity issues which have been ignored so far by a Welsh Assembly Government that is failing to conform to the European Landscape Convention.”
The move towards reopening coal mines and building biomass power stations also came under criticism. Robin Cammish, from the Coed Bach action group, near Kidwelly, spoke on plans to build a 50MW biomass power station, even though biomass power generation produces as much CO2 as coal.
With a similar one planned for Swansea Docks the fuel would have to be imported 6,000 miles from Alaska as there is insufficient timber in Wales – yet the local authority was recommending approval.
“When you think of a 10-storey- high power station in the middle of the countryside you would have thought the council would have been a bit more critical of it,” said Mr Cammish.
Developers are attracted by huge grants and subsidies. Mr Cammish said 40% of the £80m construction costs would be recovered immediately and the subsidies could total more than £40m a year.
The UK Government expects the subsidies – paid through Renewables Obligation certificates or Rocs – to developers to total £1bn a year by 2010.
The money comes from a levy on every electricity bill and the Rocs, currently worth about £40 for each 1,000MW hour of “green” electricity, can be traded like shares.
With authorities actively encouraging developers to build wind and biomass power stations, the price of Rocs has doubled this year.
A Welsh Assembly Government spokesperson said: “The threat of climate change is clear and urgent and the Welsh Assembly Government is determined that Wales will play its full part in combating this threat. That is why the WAG is committed both to targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and to a rapid expansion of renewabl
A GOVERNMENT “in a muddle” over its energy policy has been accused of allowing developers to make a fortune out of ruining the countryside.
Ivor Russell, secretary of the Carmarthenshire branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales, said the Welsh Assembly Government was in danger of making matters worse and destroying the countryside for no real purpose.
“What will our children make of it if they look back in a desert of useless wind turbines that have been made redundant by other major factors like nuclear power?” said Mr Russell in an address to the branch’s annual meeting in Llanarthne on Saturday.
He recalled that the branch had submitted a detailed response to the WAG consultation on the issue two years ago calling for a two-tiered approach of passive and active measures to reduce CO2 emissions.
The passive measures, including insulating all buildings, using only long-life lightbulbs, increased energy efficiency and reducing demand carried no risk but were being widely ignored. And on active measures – wind, wave, tidal, hydro and solar power – the Government was concentrating almost exclusively on wind.
Mr Russell warned that huge tracts of the Welsh landscape could become an industrial powerhouse with massive turbines and hundreds of miles of new pylons and wires across the countryside.
“All the wind turbines built in the world have together made only a very small diminution in the amount of CO2 emissions,” he said. “And there’s only any point in doing it if the major polluters – the United States, China and India – reduce their emissions.
“The turbines are getting higher all the time, along with the effects on people’s lives through noise and the loss of all the other amenity issues which have been ignored so far by a Welsh Assembly Government that is failing to conform to the European Landscape Convention.”
The move towards reopening coal mines and building biomass power stations also came under criticism. Robin Cammish, from the Coed Bach action group, near Kidwelly, spoke on plans to build a 50MW biomass power station, even though biomass power generation produces as much CO2 as coal.
With a similar one planned for Swansea Docks the fuel would have to be imported 6,000 miles from Alaska as there is insufficient timber in Wales – yet the local authority was recommending approval.
“When you think of a 10-storey- high power station in the middle of the countryside you would have thought the council would have been a bit more critical of it,” said Mr Cammish.
Developers are attracted by huge grants and subsidies. Mr Cammish said 40% of the £80m construction costs would be recovered immediately and the subsidies could total more than £40m a year.
The UK Government expects the subsidies – paid through Renewables Obligation certificates or Rocs – to developers to total £1bn a year by 2010.
The money comes from a levy on every electricity bill and the Rocs, currently worth about £40 for each 1,000MW hour of “green” electricity, can be traded like shares.
With authorities actively encouraging developers to build wind and biomass power stations, the price of Rocs has doubled this year.
A Welsh Assembly Government spokesperson said: “The threat of climate change is clear and urgent and the Welsh Assembly Government is determined that Wales will play its full part in combating this threat. That is why the WAG is committed both to targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and to a rapid expansion of renewable energy.”
He said Wales’ natural renewable energy resources could, within 20 years, provide more renewable electricity than the total amount currently used. In addition to wind, the WAG Renewable Energy Route Map route map looks at marine, hydro, biomass, micro-generation and energy efficiency measures that feed into an overall energy strategy, which would be published next year.
“Contrary to the allegations that measures such as energy saving, insulating buildings and increased energy efficiency are being ignored, the WAG has actively promoted policies and investment in all these areas which will be brought together in a National Energy Efficiency Savings Plan to be published this autumn,” he said.
“It is a fact that wind energy is the most commercially viable renewable technology available at the present time.”
But he said supporting wind energy did not mean that the Government believed in overriding proper planning process.
“All wind farm proposals are subject to a strict planning process, addressing siting, environmental, visual and community impacts,” he said.
“It is important to remember that less than 1% of the land mass of Wales will be affected by our proposals.”e energy.”
He said Wales’ natural renewable energy resources could, within 20 years, provide more renewable electricity than the total amount currently used. In addition to wind, the WAG Renewable Energy Route Map route map looks at marine, hydro, biomass, micro-generation and energy efficiency measures that feed into an overall energy strategy, which would be published next year.
“Contrary to the allegations that measures such as energy saving, insulating buildings and increased energy efficiency are being ignored, the WAG has actively promoted policies and investment in all these areas which will be brought together in a National Energy Efficiency Savings Plan to be published this autumn,” he said.
“It is a fact that wind energy is the most commercially viable renewable technology available at the present time.”
But he said supporting wind energy did not mean that the Government believed in overriding proper planning process.
“All wind farm proposals are subject to a strict planning process, addressing siting, environmental, visual and community impacts,” he said.
“It is important to remember that less than 1% of the land mass of Wales will be affected by our proposals.”
HEAT'S ON IN BIOMASS ROW
MARY.VANCURA@SWWMEDIA.CO.UK - Carmarthen Journal _____________________________________________________________ Big Meeting on Biomass Power Plant 16:02 - 10 July 2008 Nearly 250 people packed Trimsaran Leisure Centre to oppose plans for the biomass power station in Kidwelly.
16 July 2008
Opposing sides in the Coedbach biomass power station row have gone head to head following a heated public meeting in Trimsaran last week.
More than 250 people attended the meeting to hear the Coedbach Action Group express fears for the environment if the plant is given the go-ahead, including concerns over pollution, traffic and the visual impact on the surrounding countryside.
The group's chairman, Robin Cammish - whose home is just a kilometre from the old washery site on which the wood chip-burning site would be built - said they were prepared to fight the plans until the end.
"It was obvious from the informed nature of everyone's questions at the meeting that people are taking this very seriously," he said.
"We need it so that Carmarthenshire Council cannot ignore us."
Kidwelly town councillor Fran Burke-Lloyd said: "Approval of this could open the door for any number of new industrial developments, and the area could turn into Port Talbot."
The plans, which have been recommended for approval by the council's head of planning, Eifion Bowen, would see 250,000 tons of wood chip burned annually.
It would provide electricity for much of Carmarthenshire, via a process that has been endorsed by the Assembly as part of efforts to diminish reliance on oil and coal.
Among those attending the meeting was the local businessman behind the plans, Clive Hughes, who said the truth about the scheme did not lie in the group's presentation.
"Their main claims are without foundation and are merely intended to deal only in the currency of fear," he said.
Addressing claims that the station - which would burn wood chip to generate electricity - would be bigger than Llanelli's Trostre plant, he said: "The main Trostre building alone is 11 times the size of ours."
Carmarthenshire Council deferred a decision on the plans last month in order to carry out a site visit to a similar plant that has been constructed in Lockerbie, Scotland.
Coedbach Action Group leader Robin Cammish said the turnout reflected the force of feeling against the plans for the old Coedbach coal washery site.
Mr Cammish said: "I was very pleased with the turnout and I think we achieved what we set out to do. It also became obvious, from the informed nature of all of the questions, that people really are taking this very seriously and are prepared to stand up and fight it."
'TOWN COULD BE THE NEXT PORT TALBOT'
MARY VANCURA
10:00 - 10 July 2008
Kidwelly could be turned into a new Port Talbot if plans for the biomass power station at the old Coedbach Washery are given the go-ahead, according to local opposition.Residents in the picturesque vicinity of the site fear that by agreeing to the plans the Carmarthenshire Council could set a dangerous precedent that would make it difficult to refuse any further plans for industrial development in the area.
Kidwelly town councillor Fran Burke-Lloyd said it would be disastrous for the area to regress to its industrial past.
"Approval of this could open the door for any number of new industrial developments," she said.
tScottish Visit Over Biomass Plant
A decision has been put on hold over whether to build a biomass plant to burn woodchip in Carmarthenshire.
At the Planning Meeting on 19 June, 2008, the council's planning committee agreed to visit a similar power station, possibly in Scotland, before making its ruling.
BIO E plc said the plant on an old coal washery site near Kidwelly could burn up to 500,000 tonnes of woodchip a year and generate up to 50MW of electricity.
Opponents of the scheme demonstrated outside county hall in Carmarthen before the meeting started.
Council planning officers had recommended the application was approved, stating it would help achieve Welsh Assembly Government renewable energy targets.
But the 22-strong committee deferred a decision so it could visit a similar sized plant.
Councillors were told there was one at Lockerbie.
 |  Let's put this in perspective, this is a similar size as Trostre steelworks in Llanelli  Robin Cammish |
The decision was welcomed by campaigners.
Robin Cammish said: "I think its absolutely the right decision to defer this so the council can look at the site and see one in operation.
"Let's put this in perspective, this is the same size as Trostre steelworks in Llanelli. It's enormous - 300 metres long.
"To put that in a rural landscape will just have an appalling impact on the local area."
The company said steam would be used to power a turbine, connected to a power generator, to produce renewable energy for the electricity network.
It said its application was supported by an environmental impact assessment.
No objections were made by any of the statutory bodies including the Countryside Council for Wales.
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