Environment and Sustainability Committee
E&S(4)-07-12 paper 5
Inquiry into energy policy and planning in Wales – Evidence from ecodyfi
Y
Plas
Machynlleth
SY20 8ER
01654 703965
6/2/2012
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas,
Committee Chairman,
Environment and Sustainability Committee,
National Assembly for Wales,
Cardiff
CF99 1NA
Annwyl Dafydd
Energy Policy and Planning in Wales Inquiry
I should like to add a few points to the evidence submitted by Community Energy Wales and Llangattock Green Valleys.
1. Some of the communities to have benefitted from investments in renewable energy have done so because they have had small grants from the Mid Wales Community Energy Trust, in part. This applies to Trefeglwys and Carno in Montgomeryshire. Trefeglwys School has a PV installation and had related input into the classroom. Carno Community Centre has a wood pellet boiler to heat the building, with improved heating controls, replacing oil.
2. Mid Wales Community Energy Trust (known as Windfall) exists to re-invest funds donated by commercial developers of renewable energy into sustainable energy projects in communities. These grants may be for microgeneration and/or energy demand reduction measures. Developers sometimes choose to donate part of their commitment to Windfall so that the carbon benefits of their development are multiplied, while donating the other part to the more usual local funds for diverse community benefit. www.windfall.org.uk
3. We recommend that this approach is reinforced by planning authorities and the Welsh Government, such that some monies from wind developers are ring fenced for climate change actions at community level.
4. Welsh Government itself is managing a programme to facilitate community scale renewable energy, called Ynni’r Fro. It is delivered by the Energy Saving Trust for Wales with EC structural funds.
5. Barriers to community owned wind turbines include objections from the Ministry of Defence on radar grounds. This sterilizes much of Ceredigion and NW Wales because of the Aberporth and Valley establishments. After successfully trialling a radar system that can ignore the spinning blades of turbines, the MoD announced in mid January that contractor SERCO had installed and successfully tested a Lockheed Martin TPS-77 Air Defence Radar at Trimingham on the Norfolk coast, which allows it to conditionally scrap its objections to five offshore wind farms in the Greater Wash. Could Welsh Government broker such an agreement in Wales?
6. Wind hysteria in Montgomeryshire is such that some Town and Community Councils seem to be registering objections to all wind turbine proposals, however small. Not deciding on the merits of the individual case is inappropriate as a planning procedure.
7. The capacity of the “grid” to allow export of microgeneration is often an issue, as is the cost of strengthening it. High head hydro sites are often unviable because of the cost of upgrading single phase lines to three phase. The UK has “deep” connection charges to the distribution system i.e. the generator pays an apportionment of all costs upstream. Consideration should be given to the German model of “shallow” charges, which often are cheaper because the Distribution Network Operator carries some of the costs higher up the system, which often increase robustness.
I hope this is of help.
Yn gywir
Andy Rowland
Manager / Trefnydd
ecodyfi is a membership organisation, bringing people together to foster sustainable community regeneration in the Dyfi Valley
Mae ecodyfi yn sefydliad aelodaeth, sy’n dod a phobl at ei gilydd i fabwysiadu adfywiad cymunedol cynaliadwy yn Nyffryn Dyfi