Wind industry confident over EU targets

The UK wind industry has expressed confidence that it can meet the demanding renewable energy targets that are expected to be announced by the European Commission this Wednesday, but only if the government urgently reforms its planning legislation.

The EU is this week expected to set the UK a target of generating between 14 and 15 per cent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 as part of its so called 20:20:20 commitment to generate 20 per cent of energy from renewable sources and cut carbon emissions by 20 per cent by 2020.

Speaking at a roundtable event today, representatives of the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) said that the targets would require a massive expansion in renewable electricity generation from around six per cent of total capacity now to between 30 and 40 per cent by 2020.

Adam Bruce, BWEA chairman and UK chief executive of wind energy provider Airtricity, said there was a renewed confidence in the industry that these targets could be met and that the bulk of the new capacity could be provided by the onshore and offshore wind sector.

"Six months ago people were a bit more sceptical, but following Gordon Brown's recent commitment to meet the EU targets and [business secretary] John Hutton's speech in Berlin detailing plans to deliver 33GW of offshore wind [capacity] there has been a step change in the government's attitude," he said. "Wind energy is moving… from being the Cinderella of electricity generation to a position of significant influence… It will come to play a similar sized role to that of the nuclear industry."

The group estimated that by 2020 around 10 per cent of UK electricity capacity could be provided by onshore wind farms, a further 17 per cent could come from a massive expansion in offshore wind, while biomass, hydro, solar, wave and tidal power could combine to provide the roughly three per cent of capacity required to meet the 30 per cent target.

However, the BWEA warned that these targets could only be met if the government upped efforts to unblock the planning logjam that has dogged the industry over recent years.

Chris Tomlinson, director of programme strategy at the BWEA, said that currently nearly 8,000MW of wind farm capacity was stuck in the planning system, adding that while 70 per cent of major planning applications were processed within 16 weeks only five per cent of wind farm applications were afforded the same speedy response.

He added that the UK was already at risk of missing its 2010 target to generate 8GW from wind energy by 2010 as a result of the slow planning approval process. The BWEA estimates that based on current capacity and projects that are either under construction or been granted planning approval the UK will still fall 1GW short of the target. "We need that [1GW of extra capacity] to be consented within the next few months if we are to construct the sites in time," said Tomlinson, adding that while there were positive signs from the Scottish government that approval for a number of projects the UK government may still have to intervene in the planning process if it is to meet the 2010 target.

The government has moved to streamline the planning legislation through its new planning reform bill, but Tomlinson argued that this was unlikely to be passed before 2009 and would only make it easier for the largest wind farms to gain planning permission.

Under the legislation, applications for onshore wind farms generating over 50MW of capacity would bypass standard planning processes and be referred to a new Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC). However, over half of the current onshore projects waiting approval will generate less than 500MW prompting the BWEA to call on the government to include a provision in the new bill that would allow ministers to refer smaller projects to the IPC.

Separately the BWEA also warned that the 2020 target would be at jeopardy if the government failed to extend the time period for the Renewables Obligation (RO) mechanism which effectively subsidises the renewables sector.

"Under the energy bill the RO stops dead in 2027 and as we approach 2015 and the horizon for returns through the RO gets shorter and shorter investor confidence will drop away," warned Dr Gordon Edge, director of economics and markets at the BWEA. "If the industry is to continue to grow beyond 2015 the government will have to deal with the 2027 issue."