Ease planning rules for ageing onshore wind, industry urges

Planning rules should be changed to make it easier to replace ageing turbines at onshore wind farms, avoiding the risk of lost generation capacity, industry bodies have urged.

In its submission to the House of Commons business, energy and industrial strategy (BEIS) select committee’s inquiry into the decarbonisation of power, RenewableUK has warned that more than 8GW of the UK’s existing 13.5GW of operational onshore wind generation capacity will be past its expected lifespan by 2040.

Without supportive policies to enable the replacement of these aging turbines, the renewable energy umbrella body warns that around 5.5GW of this capacity will be lost.

RenewableUK says these old wind farms can be replaced by more powerful technology, pointing to a 160% increase in the power capacity of the 19 sites that have been ‘repowered’ so far, while using just two thirds of the number of previously installed turbines.

Against a backdrop of splits amongst Tory MPs over whether planning rules for new onshore wind should be eased in England, RenewableUK says supportive planning policies would enable the most to be made of the UK’s existing wind farm sites.

In its submission to the inquiry, Energy UK calls for a presumption in favour of planning applications to repower existing wind farm sites.

“Without clear policy support, we risk losing large quantities of renewable capacity, including onshore wind, resulting in a regressive step in the journey to net zero.

“With advancement in technology, planning policy should encourage extending life of the assets or replacing old turbines with new. With grid connections becoming increasingly difficult to secure, repowering also allows using existing connections to enhance capacity.”

Energy UK’s submission also describes as “disappointing” the absence in the government’s energy security strategy, published earlier this year, of any moves to rapidly expand the UK’s onshore wind resources.

It says: “The politics around issues like onshore renewables and energy efficiency measures may have to shift to really turbocharge our energy transition.”