Institute of Welsh Affairs

Fair Wind for Local Communities

For Publication after 0100 Wednesday April 14th 2004

Benefits will blow in for trusts that take charge of wind farm projects

Rural communities in Wales can derive significant economic and social benefits, if they, rather than outside developers, take the initiative and sponsor wind energy projects themselves, an article in the latest edition of agenda, the journal of the Institute of Welsh Affairs, argues.

This is the conclusion reached by Dr. Dafydd Huws, manager of Amgen Energy, which is helping to take a large-scale wind farm project at Tregaron to planning permission stage.

Dr. Huws argues that developers will be willing to return a significant percentage of revenue to locally set-up trusts, if communities can find a way of bearing the costs of taking projects to planning permission stage. This is because the developer is relieved of the risk involved in advancing such projects, which are also more likely to gain planning permission where community involvement is demonstrated.

Amgen Energy (Ynni Amgen in Welsh) is working with a trust, Cymuned Camddwr, which is seeking to promote rural regeneration by developing Tregaron’s upland forested plateaux for wind energy. The aim is to invest the proceeds from a deal with a developer in the economic, linguistic and social life of the area as well as protect its environment. The projected income of the trust based on a 150 turbine project is estimated at £2.3m a year.

In the proposed Tregaron development, the trustees, who are led by Cyril Hughes, former director of Urdd Gobaith Cymru, will establish a professional management team and a project evaluation and funding organisation at construction time. Funding will be mainly offered to communities centred on Tregaron, broadly the catchment area of Tregaron secondary school.

The National Assembly benchmark of 4 TW hours or more than 20 per cent of Welsh electricity demand from renewables by 2010 can only be achieved, Dr. Huws points out, if there is a significant contribution from onshore wind farms. This requires a small number of very large projects to allow the size of the remaining developments to be determined more flexibly and more appropriately to local factors and topography.

“The Cambrian Mountains represent the most sparsely populated large upland area in Wales. Being an upland plateau it can absorb a very large wind project with remarkably little visual influence on the surrounding areas,” he argues.

In parallel with the main wind energy project, a biomass scheme using local forest by-products is at an advanced stage of planning. This will provide heating for Tregaron secondary school and its swimming pool, together with a nearby small housing estate.

Other articles in agenda include an examination of issues affecting the south Wales Valleys, with a special focus on policy initiatives aimed at helping to regenerate an area containing three in ten of the Welsh population. Another special section looks at the role and performance of partnerships in delivering economic development. There is also an assessment of the Assembly Government’s strategy for sport and recreation and an account of latest proposals to develop a city museum for Cardiff.

For further information, contact the Institute of Welsh Affairs 029 2066 6606 or e-mail wales@iwa.org.uk