Man makes plans and gods laugh – or, for those in the UK onshore wind community, Eric Pickles chuckles. Since the communities secretary awarded himself powers to call in applications for onshore windfarms last autumn, he has rejected 11 out of 13, and his example has been eagerly followed by local authorities across the UK, with planning approvals for onshore windfarms reversing from two out of three approved to two out of three rejected, as Utility Week’s Megan Darby reports (p12). Meanwhile, another two solar farms were chucked out of planning this week, a further blow for a sector already reeling from subsidy cuts, while fracking enjoys, for now at least, capricious political favour, as confirmed by the Queen’s Speech last week, setting a course for the Infrastructure Bill.
What’s the plan?
