Denbighshire Planning Update – September 2024

In this edition, we concentrate on just one of the several Developments of National Significance within Denbighshire, Flintshire, Wrexham and Conwy (although Conwy is not within Clwyd Branch’s area of interest, any wind farm applications there are likely to be in the hills and will affect our Branch members).

So, let’s look at ALWEN FOREST, in Conwy County Borough Council (with a small section in Denbighshire).  This is an application by RWE Renewables, an associate of a massive German public company, RWE, headquartered in Essen. Ownership of RWE Renewables is complicated, with finance coming from Qatar and the USA as well as RWE itself. Its sole product is “Electricity”.

The forest is owned by Dwr Cymru, and the forestry managed by Natural Resources Wales.

The application is for 9 turbines, 200 metres high,  with an installed capacity of up to 60MW, enough to supply the needs of 63,500 homes. (it’s important to remember that figures like this are for the rare occasions when the wind is blowing at its most suitable speed), together with an element of community ownership, and for battery storage, foundations, external transformer housing, crane pads, access tracks, entrance points, substation and control building, underground electricity cables, temporary (?) borrow pits, and storage compounds. An area will be reserved for peat restoration, and there will be special attention to drainage within and off the site.

The electricity is likely to be exported through and beside Clocaenog Forest Windfarm, connecting with Clocaenog’s existing grid connection.

The deadline for submission of the application is 30 November this year, and meanwhile RWE are probably beavering away with their Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), which will cover every possible land use issue.   This is likely to include  1. Introduction.  2. Approach to the EIA.  3. Site Selection and Design Evolution.  4. Project Description.  5. Ecology Assessment.  6. Ornithology Assessment.  7. Landscape and Visual Assessment.  8. Cultural Heritage Assessment.  9. Hydrology, Geology and Hydrogeology Assessment.  10. Traffic and Transport Assessment.  11. Noise Assessment.  12. Forestry Assessment.  13.Health and Public Safety.  14. Aviation and Existing Infrastructure.  15. Socio-economic Infrastructure.  16. Conclusion – Residual Effects, Synergistic Effects and Mitigation.  How’s that for thoroughness ?

Each of these will be many pages long; and most will be written by RWE’s consultants, including Natural Power, BSG Ecology, Land Use Consultants, Headland Archaeology, TNEI Group, Tilhill Forestry and Coleman Aviation.

It goes without saying that all these companies will tell the truth. Where appropriate they will build into their reports some form of ‘compensation’ for any disturbance caused by the erection and operation of these giants.  They know, however, that RWE want this wind farm to be approved, so they will carefully phrase their advice to maximise the benefits of the application and minimise its negative effects. (We have all told people what they want to hear for politeness’ sake, but never, we hope, for the sake of profit).

Finally, let us all remember that the location chosen for these turbines is within an area of North Wales where there is a “presumption in favour”, and where the land has been “pre-assessed” by Welsh Government as being suitable for renewable energy projects.

Objecting to wind farms now has become more difficult than twenty years ago, when ‘It spoils the view’ or ‘it clutters a much-loved horizon’ or ‘it won’t make any difference to global warming’ were all objections to be taken seriously. Climate Change and Net Zero have changed all that.