A TWICE-BACKED £1m scheme for a “20-storey-high” wind turbine at a Pembrokeshire mansion will have to be decided by all councillors.

Mr and Mrs Glen Peters of Western Solar Ltd are seeking permission for a single turbine on land near the Grade II-listed Rhosygilwen Mansion, which includes an arts and functions building known as Neuaddydderwen.

Members of the April meeting of Pembrokeshire County Council’s planning committee were recommended to refuse the scheme, despite backing it at their March meeting.

This backing meant the application returned to the April meeting for ratification after a ‘cooling off’ period; the application having been deferred at the January meeting pending a site visit.

It was initially recommended for refusal in January for several reasons, including potential harm to the setting of the Grade-II-listed house and grounds, and fears of threats to the safe operation of West Wales Airport at Aberporth in neighbouring Ceredigion, some 9.5 kilometres away.

The last concern was later withdrawn.

In papers ahead of the April meeting, officers, again recommending refusal, have said the scheme “would not protect or enhance the setting [of Rhosygilwen] but rather would result in significant harm to this interest of acknowledged importance”.

They have also warned any backing of the scheme against policy recommendations could set a precedent for similar developments.

NATURAL Resources Wales (NRW) will reduce mowing as much as possible on the land in its care during May to help tackle the nature emergency and in support of Plantlife’s ‘No Mow May’ campaign.

The scale and rate of biodiversity loss across Wales is accelerating. Every third mouthful of food we eat has been created by pollination, and without pollinators our food supply would collapse.

Half of the UK’s 27 bumblebee species are in decline, and of the 43 species of butterfly seen in Wales, 10 are in severe decline and 17 are declining.

There are several reasons for the decline in pollinators, such as climate change, pollution and pesticides, and change in how land is managed.

Throughout the growing season, NRW cuts grass and vegetation in areas such as forests, nature reserves, river banks, flood defences and reservoir embankments.

Reducing mowing in May will help biodiversity by allowing spring plants to set seed and grow to provide nectar and pollen for pollinators, such as bees and butterflies.

NRW will reduce its mowing activities in May as much as possible, but essential grass cutting will continue in some areas across Wales.

There are several reasons for this, for example:

• to manage access to forests and nature reserves to make sure people are safe when they visit.
• to easily inspect flood defences and repair them if needed, helping to reduce flood risk to communities.
• for nature conservation, for example to manage an invasive species or to benefit species in a certain area by cutting the vegetation.

David Letellier, NRW’s Head of Operations South Wales Central, said: “We’re committed to tackling the climate and nature emergencies and helping nature and people thrive together.

“We will reduce our mowing activities in May as much as possible to support pollinators, but we want people to understand that we may carry out essential grass cutting to benefit certain communities or species.

“For example, we may continue mowing flood defences to make sure they are in good working order, or if mowing some sites in May would leave wildflowers to recover and bloom throughout the late summer to benefit certain pollinators.

“We need to act now to protect our pollinators. This is why we manage all of our sites to make them as pollinator friendly as possible and to provide food and shelter for other species.

“There are things we can all do to make it easier for pollinators to survive. These can be relatively simple, such as managing grass verges in a more sensitive way, or leaving wild areas around our offices, homes and public buildings.

“We can all help by making our gardens pollinator-friendly by not using pesticides, not mowing the lawn as often, and growing pollinator-friendly plants.”

A NEW report by RenewableUK shows that building more energy storage projects alongside onshore wind and solar farms reduces electricity system costs, benefitting billpayers in the long term.

These storage projects are also vital in providing flexibility in our clean energy system to ensure it continues to meet electricity demand at all times, especially as demand is set to grow with the take-up of technologies such as electric vehicles.

The report, entitled “Making the most of renewables: the role of onshore co-location in accelerating an integrated energy system”, sets out the case for reforming the planning system and introducing financial support mechanisms to encourage more battery storage and green hydrogen projects to “co-locate” at sites where clean electricity is generated throughout the UK. This means they could be built on wind and solar sites which already have planning permission and share existing grid connections rather than having to wait for years in a queue, saving time and money.

The queue of all energy projects awaiting connection has now reached over 700 gigawatts (GW) according to National Grid statistics, of which 97GW are battery storage projects. To put this into context, the UK’s entire operational wind capacity (onshore and offshore) currently stands at nearly 30GW.

Co-locating solar projects with battery storage could reduce the cost of building and running battery projects by 50%. And cumulatively, research by the Carbon Trust suggests that enabling a more flexible energy system with storage would save the UK up to £16.7 billion a year by 2050 in electricity system costs, ultimately benefitting bill payers.

RenewableUK’s EnergyPulse database shows that at present only 12% of wind and solar farms throughout the UK are co-located with batteries or hydrogen electrolysers, but the report states that has the potential to surge in the years ahead to meet the expected increase in electricity demand if the right policy framework is put in place.

The report calls for National Grid ESO to identify and quantify the value of the flexibility which co-location offers to a net zero system, as this would stimulate new investment. The wide range of measures also include providing new streamlined guidance for planning authorities to bring forward projects, and resourcing planning bodies better to enable decisions to be taken more swiftly.

The innovative “energy parks” which combine renewables and storage produce a more constant supply of clean electricity, which helps to tackle the issue of variability; in high winds, the grid cannot always cope with the vast amounts of clean power being generated by wind, and although some grid upgrades are underway, other solutions are needed to make the best use of the UK’s abundant renewable energy resources.

The report’s author, RenewableUK’s Senior Policy Analyst Yonna Vitanova, said:

“The value of storage in our modern energy system is under-appreciated and under-valued. This has to change if we’re to make the most of innovation clean technology, drive people’s electricity bills down and increase Britain’s energy security.

“The growth of much-needed energy storage projects, co-locating alongside wind and solar farms, is currently being hindered by out-dated policies and regulations which were drawn up in a different era. There isn’t even a clear definition of co-location applied consistently across planning policies, grid and market arrangements – which is one of the factors hindering the speed of deployment of co-located projects.

“Renewable energy developers should be able to include co-location in their business plans more easily, with a clearer rules and regulations being put in place to unleash the benefits which co-located projects can provide to the system and ultimately to consumers. Building a more flexible system by tackling the current barriers to co-location will require a coordinated effort and a holistic strategy cutting across markets, grid, planning and technical barriers, as this report shows. Although this is challenging, it will ultimately benefit billpayers in the long term by cutting electricity system costs”.

RenewableUK’s report “Making the most of renewables: the role of onshore co-location in accelerating an integrated energy system”, is available here.