Friends of Radnor Forest supported by CPRW Brecon & Radnorshire branch joined a community walk on Llangegley Rhos to watch the magnificent starling roost on Sunday 11 February (photo Alex Ramsay, 17 January 2024).
The wind turbine in the photo (below) is part of Hendy Wind Farm. A single second-hand turbine was commissioned exactly 5 years ago, long before the site was ready for installation of the other six. This was a last-minute bid to claim public money for the operation of the unbuilt wind farm before the subsidy scheme expired at the end of January 2019.
Construction went ahead without fulfilling the legal preconditions; one of these preconditions was to demonstrate a secure electricity export plan but the turbines have never generated any electricity and are not even connected to the grid.
January 2024 it has been:
- 5 years since first turbine erected.
- No electricity has ever been generated.
- Wind farm not built as permitted.
- 5 pre-development conditions still pending.
- Breach of planning condition requiring removal of wind turbines if fail to produce electricity by 31st August 2021 has not been enforced.
- Substation application still pending.
