Renewable revolution failing to launch

THE Westcountry's renewables revolution is failing to launch as figures revealed "green" power equates to only 1 per cent of the region's energy needs.

Despite being blessed with windy conditions, powerful waves and one of the biggest tidal ranges in the world, Regen SW says change is needed "on a much larger scale" if it is to contribute meaningfully to reducing carbon emissions and improving energy security.

After surveying every green energy project in the seven counties of the South West, the agency says the sector has grown by 10 per cent in the last year to 211 megawatts (MW), which is enough to power roughly all the houses in Plymouth and Exeter combined.

But the pace of growth is slow, and the body underlined it is well short of the regional target of more than 7,000 MW – 15 per cent of the region's energy needs – by 2020.

Growth in renewable electricity, stripped away from heat produced by devices such as wood fuel, was particularly sluggish.

Central to the problem is the antipathy towards wind turbines in the countryside, with critics claiming the "industrial-scale wind energy stations" are a blot on the landscape.

Merlin Hyman, chief executive of Regen SW, said: "This task (the 15 per cent target) will require change on a much larger scale, and the low increase in renewable electricity shows that we have a long way to go."

With 37 per cent of the region's total, Cornwall once again boasts the biggest share of renewable energy. Devon stays in second place with 21 per cent.

While the renewable share has bumped along at close to 1 per cent for many years, green energy proponents are optimistic a number of projects are moving into view.

Next year, construction work is expected to begin on both the world's largest commercial wave farm off the north Cornwall coast and 22 wind turbines on Fullabrook Down in North Devon, which would represent England's biggest wind farm to date.

Meanwhile, the Government is drawing up a shortlist of tidal energy projects on the Severn estuary, which has the potential to create 5 per cent of power needed in the UK. It is unlikely to be complete within the next decade.

But the renewables industry argues onshore wind farms remain the short-term alternative to diminishing natural resources that have prompted fears over energy shortfalls. Around a quarter of all renewable energy in the region comes from onshore wind. Regen SW's annual Survey of Renewable Electricity and Heat Projects in South West England pointed out five wind farms were approved by South West councillors in the last year.

Torridge District Council signed off on Galsworthy wind farm, representing the region's first rural wind farm approval at a committee for over ten years.

But it added councillors refused three wind farms last year – a "repowering" at an existing wind farm at Carland Cross near Truro, Dunsland Cross near Holsworthy and Goverton near Kingsbridge.

Of meeting the 15 per cent target, Mr Hyman said: "It's encouraging that we have more than 150 MW of renewable electricity approved, waiting to be built, but we need much more. It's therefore essential we, as a region, move more quickly when deciding on, and building, renewable electricity projects."

The long-standing opposition to wind farms is particularly acute in the countryside where protesters have labelled them "monsters".

Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband's recent warning that communities in the Westcountry have "no option" but to support a massive expansion of wind farms re-ignited the debate.

Ricky White, a member of the Green Party in North Devon, who champions onshore wind, said the survey showed the region is not making the most of its resources.

But Nick Harvey, Lib-Dem MP for North Devon, who strongly opposed the Fullabrook scheme, said: "The fact it has been 1 per cent forever is all the evidence one needed wind technology was not what was going to drive things forward. We need to look to the sea."