Onshore wind farms: Simon Hart on future of renewable energy
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Tory leadership hopeful and former Chancellor Rishi Sunak promised to “scrap” outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to relax a ban on onshore wind farms. He vowed to uphold David Cameron’s ban on new onshore wind farm construction and said on Wednesday, July 20: “I want to reassure communities that as Prime Minister I would scrap plans to relax the ban on onshore wind in England, instead focusing on building more turbines offshore.”
A YouGov poll in September last year found that 62 percent of Tory voters would support an offshore wind farm being built in their area, while just 28 per cent would be opposed.
The Liberal Democrats energy spokesperson Wera Hobhouse said Mr Sunak’s promise showed “he is completely out of touch with reality”.
She explained: “Any supposed energy security strategy without onshore wind simply makes no sense.
“Onshore wind sites can be up and running, providing low-cost clean power for bill payers, in around a year.”
The UK generated as much as 24 percent of its electricity from wind power in 2020, enough to supply 18.5 million homes, according to the Government.
In March, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said that the UK required a major “acceleration” in onshore wind farms to reduce energy bills.
He also said it would help guarantee energy supplies as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine placed pressure on European gas and energy security.
At the time, Tory MP Bob Blackman said: “It would be a total disaster. It’s extremely unpopular, they’re ugly, and they don’t necessarily produce enough energy.
“I do think if we start getting into energy supply, it should be fracking, not onshore wind.”
Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged to deliver up to 50 gigawatts by 2030 from offshore wind farms – enough to power every home in the UK – in his Government’s energy security strategy published in April.
The strategy also vowed to cut the approval process from four years to one but no targets we set for onshore wind.
Some argue that onshore wind farms should be favoured as they can be built quicker and cheaper than offshore wind farms.
But despite calls for an increase in onshore wind power, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) signalled only “a limited number” of onshore wind farms would go ahead.
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BEIS said: “We will be consulting on developing partnerships with a limited number of supportive communities who wish to host new onshore wind infrastructure in return for guaranteed lower energy bills.”
Tory MPs have been opposed to plans to increase onshore wind generation and an effective ban has been in place since 2015.
In 2012, 101 Conservative MPs signed a letter to then-Prime Minister Mr Cameron opposing onshore wind farms.
The letter called for subsidies for onshore wind farms to be withdrawn and to ensure that the planning system “properly takes into account the views of local people”.
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