Planning blueprint slammed for prioritising aviation over renewables

The government’s new energy planning blueprint has been slammed for continuing to prioritise the interests of the aviation industry over renewables projects.

In their responses to the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee’s inquiry into the revised energy National Policy Statement (NPS), Energy UK and Scottish Power have both criticised the treatment of aviation and onshore wind.

The draft statements, which were published as a suite of documents in September for consultation by the BEIS department, stated it is “essential” that the safety of UK aerodromes, aircraft and airspace is not adversely affected by new energy infrastructure.

Scottish Power pointed out in its response that the aviation section of the over-arching EN-1 document is “virtually unchanged” from the 2011 version that it is due to replace.

The document’s current wording is not “equitable” and does not reflect the the conclusions of the recently published Air Defence and Offshore Wind Windfarm Mitigation Task Force’s Strategy and Implementation Plan, the company said.

“The energy NPS, and the aviation NPS should both explicitly state that wind farms are now part of the existing built environment and wind farms need only meet aviation conditions for existing radar and surveillance infrastructure. It must be recognised that subsequent surveillance infrastructure procured by the aviation industry should be wind farm tolerant and paid for by aviation users and not electricity consumers.”

Pointing to the Climate Change Committee’s advice that unabated aviation demand must be reduced, Energy UK’s response said: “The NPSs need to be amended to ensure that the prioritisation of local aviation development above renewable energy development must be resisted.”

The two responses also expressed concern over lack of support in the NPS for onshore wind.

The “removal” of onshore wind from the EN-3 renewable energy NPS and the failure to even mention the technology in EN-1 is “short-sighted and damaging to future deployment of this much-needed renewable energy source across the UK,” warned Energy UK.

“The current drafting does not adequately reflect the importance of these technologies in meeting the UK’s interim and net zero targets and therefore the documents must be strengthened to provide more explicit support.”

The statements “fall short” of alignment with the Energy White Paper, which notes there must be “sustained growth” in the capacity over the next decade of onshore wind and solar.

The absence of a position on the need for onshore wind means the draft NPS is “inconsistent” with the white paper, said Scottish Power.

This lack of support for the technology also threatens to stymie the growth of co-located energy park developments featuring a mix of solar, onshore wind, green hydrogen and battery storage, it added.