{"id":631195,"date":"2023-04-19T19:55:46","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T00:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/19\/ministers-urged-to-fast-track-onshore-wind-schemes\/"},"modified":"2023-04-19T19:55:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T00:55:46","slug":"ministers-urged-to-fast-track-onshore-wind-schemes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/19\/ministers-urged-to-fast-track-onshore-wind-schemes\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministers urged to fast-track onshore wind schemes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Onshore-wind-farm.jpg\" <\/p>\n

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Onshore wind projects must be given enhanced status within the planning system to speed up the UK\u2019s race to net zero, a key body has insisted.<\/p>\n

The National Infrastructure Commission called for the government to classify land-based turbines as nationally significant infrastructure amid a raft of measures to get renewable energy assets on stream more quickly.<\/p>\n

This change in status would allow applications to be decided by the secretary of state rather than local authorities. Onshore wind installation has dropped by 80 per cent since its classification as nationally significant was removed in 2016, according to the commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo deliver net zero and energy security, onshore wind, one of the cheapest forms of renewable energy generation, should be included in the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project system,\u201d said the body\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

However, the commission added that this system itself needs radical change as the time taken for a nationally significant project to achieve consent had soared by 65 per cent over the past decade.<\/p>\n

It now takes more than four years for the government to approve such applications, warned the study<\/a>, which has been sent to chancellor Jeremy Hunt.<\/p>\n

Recommendations to speed up this process include creation of a data-sharing platform to capture environmental information and development of a \u201clibrary\u201d of potential mitigations for unavoidable harm caused by infrastructure schemes.<\/p>\n

By the end of this year, ministers should draw up a \u201cframework of direct benefits\u201d available to local people from big projects that have a national remit, the commission added. This could include \u201cproximity-based payments\u201d or \u201cenergy bill discounts\u201d for those affected by a scheme.<\/p>\n

A taskforce should also be created to monitor the overall performance of the nationally significant infrastructure planning system, the commission urged, and should be given \u201cmeasurable targets\u201d for reducing approval times.<\/p>\n

Developers of critical projects should be forced to agree service-level agreements to fund statutory consultees with cost-recovery models, the report added, with financial consequences for breaking these deals.<\/p>\n

\u201cImproving the speed of the planning system for major infrastructure does not need to come at the expense of good decisions which take communities and the environment into account,\u201d said the commission, which is chaired by former 2012 Olympic delivery chief John Armitt.<\/p>\n

\u201cLonger decision-making processes mean more uncertainty for communities. Similarly, inefficiencies in environmental data-gathering and mitigation design slow down the process but do not improve the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Energy UK deputy policy director Marta Krajewska said the planning system would play a \u201ccrucial role\u201d in delivering the \u201ctransformational change\u201d required to achieve net zero.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe increasing delays we\u2019ve seen in recent years threaten to undermine the government\u2019s own targets for accelerating the production of domestic clean energy,\u201d she added. \u201cBringing onshore wind into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects system would demonstrate the government\u2019s ambitions for onshore wind, putting it on a level playing field with other energy projects so that we\u2019re making the most of our potential resources and delivering infrastructure that will enable willing local communities to benefit from new developments.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Related articles<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Greg Pitcher<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Onshore wind projects must be given enhanced status within the planning system to speed up the UK\u2019s race to net zero, a key body has insisted. The National Infrastructure Commission called for the government to classify land-based turbines as nationally significant infrastructure amid a raft of measures to get renewable energy assets on stream more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":631196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27071,1208],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-631195","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ministers","8":"category-urged"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}