Expert in warning on Northumberland energy shortfall

Posted by The Journal on Jan 19, 09 02:20 PM in News

A call has been made for urgent action to generate more renewable energy in Northumberland - after it was revealed the county is a long way short of its 2010 target for the production of green power.

wind turbines

A Government planning expert says the county is currently on course to achieve less than 20% of its target for generating electricity from renewable sources by next year.

In order to play its part in meeting a national target of producing 10% of electricity consumption from wind power and other renewables by 2010, the county needs to have 212 megawatts of installed generating capacity in place by then.

Now Government planning inspector David Cullingford says the actual working capacity is only likely to be about 40 megawatts - less than a fifth of the target set out in the emerging Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS).

The situation is likely to increase pressure on council planners and the Government to approve many of the wind farm schemes currently in the planning system and awaiting decisions either at local or national level.

Mr Cullingford's warning of the major shortfall came in the report in which he recommended the approval on appeal of a 16-turbine wind farm by Scottish Power Renewables next to the Alcan aluminium smelter at Lynemouth.

He says there is an "urgent need" to foster the generation of more electricity from renewable sources in Northumberland to bridge the capacity shortfall . "The county-wide urgency stems from the currently limited progress made towards the target set for 2010 in the emerging RSS," he adds.

Mr Cullingford says there are other wind farm applications in the planning system which would provide an additional 274 megawatts of power in the county, but these will not be installed by 2010.

Last summer The Banks Group started work on building a 12-turbine wind farm between Lanchester and Tow Law, which it claims will enable County Durham to be the first English county to hit its 2010 renewable energy target.

Yesterday Nic Best, regional policy officer with the Campaign to Protect Rural England, said while Northumberland was short of meeting its 2010 target, approval for wind farm schemes still awaiting decisions or being developed would mean swift progress towards meeting its 2020 target.

"Northumberland is clearly under great pressure from wind turbine developers and its 2010 target for renewable generation is more than 40% of the region's overall target," he added. Dr Best said more flexibility and a better mix of technologies was needed in the county, rather than just relying on onshore wind.

Phil Jones, planning manager for the North East Assembly which draws up the RSS, said: "In addition to the wind capacity already installed in Northumberland, we are aware that there are a number of applications at various stages of the planning process.

"Taking the overall planned capacity into consideration, we are confident that Northumberland will contribute to the renewable energy targets in the RSS over the planned period up to 2021.

"We will to try to ensure that the region contributes to all types of renewable energy in the best way possible, through the annual monitoring and review process."

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