The Welsh government has been accused of spoiling the Welsh countryside with wind farms to spite the English.
Cardiff is pressing ahead with onshore wind farm developments when it could explore more offshore projects because it does not want to send fees to the Crown Estate or share control of projects with the UK Government, campaigners have warned.
Fay Jones, Conservative MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, criticised the Welsh government for taking a nationalist policy stance on green energy.
She said: “It doesn’t seem to have offshore in its sights because it won’t derive all of the benefit from that.”
The Crown Estate is the ultimate owner of around half of the coastline and seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland (a separate entity, the Crown Estate Scotland is the equivalent north of the border). This means it collects fees from the development of offshore projects.
Onshore wind turbines stall: Cumulative installations
The Welsh government’s Future Wales strategy document said it supported offshore wind but that these projects did not fall within its remit.
Plaid Cymru, the junior partner in the Welsh government’s coalition deal, has called for the Crown Estate to be devolved to Wales.
Ms Jones said: “If we put those two things together, then you can see the Welsh government’s thinking on this.”
Plans are underway for a major onshore wind farm development at Radnor Forest in her own constituency.
Ms Jones added: “People absolutely hate this project. It tells you a lot about how the Welsh government sees rural Wales as just a cash cow.”
The Welsh government has denied that it is anti-offshore wind. A spokesman said: “We are strong supporters of offshore wind, including floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea, and have been pressing the Crown Estate to develop a long term plan to secure green energy in a way that can bring economic benefits to our communities.”
Ross Evans, of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW), a Welsh countryside charity, said: “There is a reluctance to get behind it [offshore wind]. The biggest reason is because they haven’t got control over it because it is up to the Crown Estate and the UK Government for the major projects offshore.”
He said there is also a risk that offshore projects will not count towards the Welsh government’s green energy targets if they come ashore in England.
He added: “They just want Wales to be a net exporter of energy and sod the rest of the UK, that is the impression I get.”
Wales currently produces 30TWh of energy. At the moment, this is roughly double how much it uses, but demand is expected to triple to 45TWh by 2050.
CPRW argues that all of this increase in demand could be met three times over by offshore projects. Current proposals for offshore power projects in the Irish and Celtic Seas could generate 100 TWh of energy. Onshore projects, by contrast, will only generate 25TWh.
That sounds really reasonable from the Welsh Government. They have built off and on shore wind power.
Imagine a regional government wanting to build some infrastructure in a way that best funds the region it governs instead of just paying money to King Charles (who probably is rich enough already on balance).
If the revenue distribution connected to different wind farm placements is leading to less energy efficient decisions, maybe the Crown Estate might like to offer to negotiate with the Welsh Government over revenues connected to the Welsh seabed for the greater good?
Really not sure this is as much of a gotcha as The Telegraph thinks it is!
> … it does not want to send fees to the Crown Estate or share control of projects with the UK Government, campaigners have warned.
Perfectly good reasoning there.
> It tells you a lot about how the Welsh government sees rural Wales as just a cash cow.
Westminster is somehow different?
If England and the Crown Estate want off-shore wind power? They can develop it.
The actual reason seems to be given in the article, clickbait headline from the telegraph
>Ross Evans, of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW), a Welsh countryside charity, said: “There is a reluctance to get behind it [offshore wind]. The biggest reason is because they haven’t got control over it because it is up to the Crown Estate and the UK Government for the major projects offshore.”
He said there is also a risk that offshore projects will not count towards the Welsh government’s green energy targets if they come ashore in England.
There are probably also financial issues here, with onshore wind being substantially cheaper, but less effective.
I will own some bias here, onshore wind shouldnt be prevented by NIMBYs who can go fuck themselves so that does push me more positively to the Welsh Gov side, although I’d rather see a change in legislation that would enable the windfarms to go offshore
They just don’t like it when Wales does anything. Especially if that thing has nothing to do with England. If Wales does something which doesn’t benefit England, it must be because of spite, because the idea that Wales does anything purely for Wales and Welsh needs is absurd.
What even is Wales without reference to England? That’s the mindset we’re dealing with.
To be fair they are fugally as all hell. And surprisingly loud.
Kind off needed though so damned of you do damned if you don’t
Roll on the tidal experiments
None of this makes sense, it’s it a fake article?
It’s like shiting in your garden to piss your neighbours off, but you’re now got shit in your garden????
You knwo what really spoils teh countryside?
Roads. Farms. People littering. Dog shit stuffed into drystone walls.
Not windmills.
They look lovely.
True. Better spoil it with housing estate after housing estate of overpriced housing instead
9 comments
The Welsh government has been accused of spoiling the Welsh countryside with wind farms to spite the English.
Cardiff is pressing ahead with onshore wind farm developments when it could explore more offshore projects because it does not want to send fees to the Crown Estate or share control of projects with the UK Government, campaigners have warned.
Fay Jones, Conservative MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, criticised the Welsh government for taking a nationalist policy stance on green energy.
She said: “It doesn’t seem to have offshore in its sights because it won’t derive all of the benefit from that.”
The Crown Estate is the ultimate owner of around half of the coastline and seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland (a separate entity, the Crown Estate Scotland is the equivalent north of the border). This means it collects fees from the development of offshore projects.
Onshore wind turbines stall: Cumulative installations
The Welsh government’s Future Wales strategy document said it supported offshore wind but that these projects did not fall within its remit.
Plaid Cymru, the junior partner in the Welsh government’s coalition deal, has called for the Crown Estate to be devolved to Wales.
Ms Jones said: “If we put those two things together, then you can see the Welsh government’s thinking on this.”
Plans are underway for a major onshore wind farm development at Radnor Forest in her own constituency.
Ms Jones added: “People absolutely hate this project. It tells you a lot about how the Welsh government sees rural Wales as just a cash cow.”
The Welsh government has denied that it is anti-offshore wind. A spokesman said: “We are strong supporters of offshore wind, including floating offshore wind in the Celtic Sea, and have been pressing the Crown Estate to develop a long term plan to secure green energy in a way that can bring economic benefits to our communities.”
Ross Evans, of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW), a Welsh countryside charity, said: “There is a reluctance to get behind it [offshore wind]. The biggest reason is because they haven’t got control over it because it is up to the Crown Estate and the UK Government for the major projects offshore.”
He said there is also a risk that offshore projects will not count towards the Welsh government’s green energy targets if they come ashore in England.
He added: “They just want Wales to be a net exporter of energy and sod the rest of the UK, that is the impression I get.”
Wales currently produces 30TWh of energy. At the moment, this is roughly double how much it uses, but demand is expected to triple to 45TWh by 2050.
CPRW argues that all of this increase in demand could be met three times over by offshore projects. Current proposals for offshore power projects in the Irish and Celtic Seas could generate 100 TWh of energy. Onshore projects, by contrast, will only generate 25TWh.
That sounds really reasonable from the Welsh Government. They have built off and on shore wind power.
Imagine a regional government wanting to build some infrastructure in a way that best funds the region it governs instead of just paying money to King Charles (who probably is rich enough already on balance).
If the revenue distribution connected to different wind farm placements is leading to less energy efficient decisions, maybe the Crown Estate might like to offer to negotiate with the Welsh Government over revenues connected to the Welsh seabed for the greater good?
Really not sure this is as much of a gotcha as The Telegraph thinks it is!
> … it does not want to send fees to the Crown Estate or share control of projects with the UK Government, campaigners have warned.
Perfectly good reasoning there.
> It tells you a lot about how the Welsh government sees rural Wales as just a cash cow.
Westminster is somehow different?
If England and the Crown Estate want off-shore wind power? They can develop it.
The actual reason seems to be given in the article, clickbait headline from the telegraph
>Ross Evans, of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural Wales (CPRW), a Welsh countryside charity, said: “There is a reluctance to get behind it [offshore wind]. The biggest reason is because they haven’t got control over it because it is up to the Crown Estate and the UK Government for the major projects offshore.”
He said there is also a risk that offshore projects will not count towards the Welsh government’s green energy targets if they come ashore in England.
There are probably also financial issues here, with onshore wind being substantially cheaper, but less effective.
I will own some bias here, onshore wind shouldnt be prevented by NIMBYs who can go fuck themselves so that does push me more positively to the Welsh Gov side, although I’d rather see a change in legislation that would enable the windfarms to go offshore
They just don’t like it when Wales does anything. Especially if that thing has nothing to do with England. If Wales does something which doesn’t benefit England, it must be because of spite, because the idea that Wales does anything purely for Wales and Welsh needs is absurd.
What even is Wales without reference to England? That’s the mindset we’re dealing with.
To be fair they are fugally as all hell. And surprisingly loud.
Kind off needed though so damned of you do damned if you don’t
Roll on the tidal experiments
None of this makes sense, it’s it a fake article?
It’s like shiting in your garden to piss your neighbours off, but you’re now got shit in your garden????
You knwo what really spoils teh countryside?
Roads. Farms. People littering. Dog shit stuffed into drystone walls.
Not windmills.
They look lovely.
True. Better spoil it with housing estate after housing estate of overpriced housing instead