Applications for onshore wind farms in England reach 10-year high
The number of applications to build new onshore wind farms in England has reached its highest annual level in the past decade. About 45 applications were submitted in the year to March, The Guardian World reports, citing its own analysis of government data.
The increase came after the Labour government lifted the de facto ban on onshore wind development introduced by the Conservatives in 2015. Before the Labour Party's election victory, applications for onshore wind capacity in England averaged about 9 MW per month on a 12-month rolling basis. At the beginning of the year, this figure rose to about 36 MW per month.
Capacity more than tripled
According to the analysis, after the restrictions were lifted, the volume of onshore wind capacity for which applications are being submitted to the planning system increased more than threefold. By comparison, in the months to September 2023, when Conservative ministers began easing regulatory restrictions, applications in England averaged only 1 MW per month.
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Since the ban was lifted, the combined capacity of proposed onshore wind projects in England has reached 438 MW. In Wales, applications for projects with a total capacity of 490 MW were submitted during the same period, while in Scotland the figure was 5,280 MW.
Small projects prevail in England
The average proposed wind farm in England after the ban was lifted had two turbines and a capacity of 8 MW. In Scotland, the average project envisaged nine turbines and a capacity of 59 MW. Only one wind farm with a capacity of more than 100 MW was proposed in England, while Scotland had 18 such projects.
The 20 MW Imerys project near St Austell in Cornwall became earlier this year the largest onshore wind farm in England to receive a government subsidy since the ban was lifted. RenewableUK chief executive Tara Singh said that onshore wind is one of the cheapest sources of new electricity in the United Kingdom and can generate it at about half the cost of new gas power plants.
